A Hollow Victory
by Luppi-tan
Summary: IchiRuki, HitsuHina, GinMashiro, KisuHime. Don't like, don't read. Ichigo gets blackmailed into cooperating with Aizen. What happens, though, when Ichigo begins to get too powerful for Aizen's own good. Rated M for later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

Chapter One

"I wouldn't attack if I were you. My hand might just _slip_ and cut Rukia-chan's lovely and supple throat. We wouldn't want _that_, now, would we, Mr. Kurosaki!?" Gin asked tauntingly, and slightly pervertedly, holding a tiny, but razor sharp dagger to Rukia's neck, right next to her Carotid Artery, so really, he wasn't threatening to cut Rukia's throat, but her Carotid, which would leave her just as dead, so there wasn't really much point in debating the difference.

"W-what…" Ichigo began, but Urahara held his hand up to his mouth and stepped forward, releasing his Shikai in case he had to act quickly.

"Wait, Ichigo. I have a question for Gin. Why did Aizen send you, rather than one of his Arrancar minions? Certainly he could more easily suffer the loss of an Arrancar, even if it was an Espada, than he could your loss. After all, he can always make more Arrancar to take the lost one's place, but there is only one of you, correct?"

"Well, Mr. Urahara, you are right in that respect, Lord Aizen wouldn't wanna lose me, but he wanted to make sure that the job was done correctly. He wasn't absolutely sure that the Arrancar could do that."

"I see. What is your motive here? What do you want out of this?" Kisuke asked icily. Gin grinned his usual foxlike grin and then said something that shocked even Kisuke.

"Well, I want Mr. Kurosaki. Lord Aizen desires Mr. Kurosaki's prodigious potential for his own uses."

"Forget it, slime bag!!" Rukia shouted, venom dripping from every syllable she spoke. The hatred for Gin that Rukia held was almost tangible, almost visible in the air around them. It was as though an oppressive black cloud of anger and rage hovered over them and blocked any light from coming through.

"You don't have a choice, you stupid little bitch!!" Gin hissed in barely suppressed rage as he lifted Rukia by her chin in one hand and slapped her hard across the face with the other and then returned to his former position, ready to cut her Carotid Artery at the slightest provocation.

"Mr. Urahara," Ichigo said calmly, glaring at Gin the whole time, not taking his hand off of his Bankai. "I may not be more powerful than you, or more eloquent than Aizen, or more graceful than Rukia, but please trust me and let me do this on my own."

Kisuke looked at Ichigo with eyes that gleamed with respect for the man that Ichigo had become. When he first met Ichigo, he was a punk kid with an attitude and a passion. Now, that passion had turned him into a still passionate, but infinitely more powerful man who could stand on his own two feet and fight for what he believed in. Kisuke nodded and stepped back, not taking his gaze from Gin in case the silver haired former captain made any sudden movement.

"Thank you. If I go with you, you have to promise not to hurt any of my nakama," Ichigo said, his voice as hard and resolute as stone. Gin grinned even more widely and nodded as if that were already obvious. Slowly, he began to pull the knife from Rukia's neck and he loosened his grip on her throat so that she could breathe more easily. Rukia gasped in horror that Ichigo was even considering this.

"ICHIGO!! DON'T!! Don't you understand!? I don't care if I die! I'm a Shinigami, and if I must die to ensure a mission's success, then I have died with honor and I would die happy. If my own failure caused me to lose you, though, I don't think I could ever look your family or our friends in the eye again! Don't let them control you through me! I'm not important! Killing Gin is what's important right now!" Rukia shouted.

Silently, Ichigo glared at Gin and contemplated everything that was going on. Gin was forcing him to make an impossible decision. He knew full well that it wasn't a good time for deep introspection, but he had to talk to Zangetsu. The old man always seemed to know what to do.

_Old man! Old man!!_

_Yes, Ichigo? What is it that you want?_

_I need help. I don't know what to do._

_So you came to me? You can no longer look to me for power. You must find it within yourself._

_I know!! But I don't have that kind of time!!_

_Make the time! Think about your own abilities and how they have served you in the past. How do you usually use your power, and how can you use it in ways that will make you more effective in combat?_

_I-I don't know! I'm not supposed to have to think this hard in a fight! A fight isn't about thinking! It's about power!_

_You imbecile! Your selfish attitude further proves that you are still a child! If you aren't good at thinking in battle, then get good at it! Only idiots throw caution to the wind when they're in a decisive battle!_

_Then what should I do!?_

_THINK!!_

And so, Ichigo thought. He thought of his powers. He thought of his strengths and his weaknesses alike. He was able to form a hollow mask. That was a strength. A weakness was that it only lasted for a minute at the longest before it disappeared and after that, he was tired from using its power. However, in his Bankai, his strongest ability was speed. He could use Shunpô with greater speed and he could run faster than he could use Shunpô in Shikai. His other ability in both Shikai and Bankai was his Getsuga Tenshô, his Moon Fang Piercer of the Heavens. In his hollow form, all of his abilities were augmented, and he also gained some new ones. For example, he had been practicing recently with a Cero blast. He wasn't great at it, but he could use it. With all of that, he might be able to beat Gin if he could get Rukia away from the silver haired traitor. He would need Yoruichi's help, to do that, though. He started thinking again. Was there any way that he could use telepathy to silently transmit a message to Yoruichi without alerting Gin? Yes. Bakudô #73 would allow him to do it, but there was a simpler spell that even he could do. It was much weaker, but for the short distance that he needed to cover, it would work, and he could do it silently.

_Goddess of the sun, God of the moon. Ancient beings converge. Evil and good as one. Bakudo # 6, Telepathy!_

_Ms. Yoruichi!_

_Yes, Ichigo?_

_Can you get Rukia away from Gin if I provided an adequate distraction?_

_Perhaps. I can try._

_Good. We need to do it before he gets a chance to hurt her, though._

_I know._

With this, Ichigo came out of thinking and instantly donned his hollow mask.

"GETSUGA TENSHÔ!!" Ichigo shouted, shooting it toward Gin's left arm so that he would be sure to dodge it. Gin did just this, and then Yoruichi used her Shunpô to move in and grab Rukia before Gin could recover. Ichigo's plan had worked perfectly. Wait. Ichigo formed a plan? Ichigo never planned for anything, and frankly, he was a terrible thinker, anyhow, so any plan that he did come up with, she would probably look on it with some doubt. Gin hissed in annoyance and drew Shinsô, releasing it in the din and dust that had been kicked up. Ichigo blocked the tip of Gin's blade with his own blade and used a high speed Shunpô to attack Gin at point blank range with a Cero blast.

An explosion of epic intensity happened almost immediately and Gin was thrown back just as violently. Slowly, the smoke began to clear and Ichigo could once again see. What he saw, though, he didn't really like. Gin was standing there, practically unharmed. He grinned insanely and sheathed his sword, walking toward Ichigo slowly, shaking his head to get rid of the ringing noise that he was hearing at the moment.

"Wow! Mr. Kurosaki, did you come up with that plan all by yourself?" he asked mockingly. "I must say, it was impressive. You never intended to hit me with that first attack, did you? You merely meant to force me to move enough that it would be a significant distraction that I would loosen my grip on Rukia-chan and Lady Yoruichi could rescue her. Am I about right? The only problem with that plan is… You should have used a second Getsuga Tenshô instead of a Cero. It would have been much more powerful and may have actually done some damage."

"Shut up!!" Ichigo shouted, using a Getsuga Tenshô. Gin merely threw it off to the side, though, causing it to hit a tree and vaporize it instead. Ichigo looked at Gin, stunned.

"You shouldn't make such obvious moves, Mr. Kurosaki. It wastes energy and it does nothing to me."

"I wouldn't be so sure, Gin! Your arm is bleeding." Ichigo said, smirking underneath his mask. Gin looked at his arm, surprised at the outcome. He smiled though and nodded.

"Touché. However, you shouldn't let your guard down. Bye bye!!" he said, grabbing Rukia with one Shunpô and taking her back to his original location.

"You see, Mr. Kurosaki, it's all about who's more powerful. In this case, I am, so I will defeat you, no matter what you try. Now, you have two options. You can surrender yourself to Lord Aizen, or Rukia-chan can die right now in front of you, and you can know that it was entirely your fault!" he said with a twisted grin on his face, as though to say that he knew how vastly superior he was to Ichigo and to the rest of them. Ichigo groaned and nodded, going out of his Bankai state and releasing his hollow mask.

"Fine. I'll go with you. You have to promise not to harm any of my friends, though!"

"ICHIGO!! F-fine! If you're going, then I'm going with you!!!" Rukia shouted. Ichigo looked at her, eyes hard.

"No. Not a chance. They need you. You should go back to Soul Society and continue to plan how to beat Aizen."

"I wasn't asking! I was telling you. If you go, then I'm going too. Ichigo, I love you, and I'm not going to let Aizen take you away from me! Kisuke, please explain to my Nii-sama why I have to do this."

"What!? But your brother is so scary!" he said sarcastically. "But, if this is really what you want, I'll make sure to tell him."

Rukia nodded and shoved Gin off of her, following Ichigo and Gin back into Hueco Mundo, where they would be staying for a long while. Both Ichigo and Rukia, as well as Kisuke and Yoruichi knew that they would eventually meet again, if only on the battlefield, and that they would have to be ready to fight them as though they were enemies. Ichigo had made his choice, and perhaps he had a plan. Perhaps he didn't, though. Kisuke had to plan for the eventuality that Ichigo didn't have a plan, though, that nothing had changed, and that he was merely the reckless, headstrong, pigheaded individual that he had always been. Kisuke didn't like to think of Ichigo like that, but it may have been unavoidable. What made it worse, though, was that Rukia was leaving as well. He wasn't exactly sure how he was going to explain to Byakuya what had happened. He could see it perfectly.

"Um… Lord Kuchiki, I just came to say that your sister eloped to Hueco Mundo with Mr. Kurosaki!" Kisuke would say with his usual goofy grin. That was about the same thing that he would have to tell Isshin. Isshin might be more open to a discussion after that, but Kisuke was sure that no matter what, he was going to become pretty damn unpopular.

"Don't worry, Kisuke." Yoruichi said kindly. She looked at him and smiled sadly as the gate to Hueco Mundo closed again.

"I understand what happened. I won't leave you."

"Well, small comfort, I suppose, but thank you, Yoruichi," Kisuke said. After that, they both used Shunpô to go back to Urahara Shôten.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

Ichigo looked around suspiciously. He didn't trust Aizen one whit, and he was thinking that there might be a trap around to test his skill before Aizen took him in. He looked at Rukia and then at Gin, who smiled at him and shrugged.

"You can put your Zanpakutô away, now, Mr. Kurosaki. I promise you that you are in no danger at the moment."

Ichigo didn't like that phrase, "at the moment". That meant that he could potentially be in danger soon. Ichigo may not have been as smart as Uryû or Orihime, even, but he was smart enough to know when he couldn't trust a word someone was saying, and this was one of those situations where he couldn't.

Suddenly, Ichigo went into Bankai and turned around suddenly, shooting off a Getsuga Tenshô at the person that he knew to be standing right at his back. When it turned out to be Aizen, though, he jumped back and held his sword at the ready position, ready at any moment to attack. Aizen smiled and nodded approvingly.

"Nice reflexes, Kurosaki-kun. You've improved since we've last met. I'd say that you are at least as powerful as Miss Halibel at the moment. I'm quite impressed," Aizen said, his grin widening. Ichigo scowled.

"Don't lie Aizen. This isn't nearly enough to impress you." Ichigo said coldly. Rukia looked at Ichigo in horror, unable to believe that he would be so blatantly rude to someone that everyone knew could kill him in a second. In short, Aizen wasn't a good person to piss off.

"Ah, well, of course you're correct, Kurosaki-kun. I'm sure with a little bit of training, though, you could impress even the Kami-sama. Gin has discussed your terms with me. I'm quite amenable to them. I was surprised that you were so willing to cooperate. I was afraid that I would have to kidnap you."

"Gin was going to hurt Rukia. I didn't have a choice."

"I see. Gin always was a little bit more temperamental than I am." Aizen said, still smiling as though talking about a son. "Well, go get some rest. Your training and Miss Kuchiki's transformation ceremony will begin after breakfast tomorrow."

Ichigo wasn't sure what a "transformation ceremony" was, but it didn't sound good.

The next morning, Ichigo and Rukia were rudely awakened by the sound of loud clanging. The two shot up in their beds and looked around. The first thing that they saw was each other. Then they saw a medium height Arrancar with short black hair with the remaining piece of his hollow mask being a top jaw bone that fit in his hair like a barrette, and a tattoo of three diamonds over his left eye, which was a shocking color of violet. For a boy, Ichigo couldn't say that he was very masculine. Ichigo looked at him coldly and when his vision focused fully, he noticed that the Arrancar was holding a large metal spoon in his left hand and a frying pan in his right hand. Ichigo groaned and stood up, noticing that he was still in his Shinigami uniform. He yawned and adjusted it slightly to cover himself more, feeling uncomfortable under the stare of the extremely effeminate adolescent that was still standing before them.

"Morning!!!" he said cheerfully, grinning from ear to ear, almost looking as though he was about to burst out laughing.

"I'm Luppi, and I'll be taking you down to breakfast as soon as you get dressed. Ichi-tan's clothes are on the right side of the room, and Rukia-chan's clothes are on the left."

With that, Luppi stopped talking and continued to stand there as though he expected the two of them to change in front of him.

"Would you at least be polite enough to wait outside, Luppi?" Ichigo asked harshly, annoyed already at this extremely irritating fellow. Luppi nodded and walked out of the room. Rukia grabbed her clothes and walked into the bathroom that connected to their room, closing and locking the door. She knew that Ichigo wouldn't try to peek in on her, but she wasn't so sure about Luppi.

"Hey, Ichi-tan, you disappointed that Rukia-chan doesn't want to change in front of you?" Luppi asked mockingly. Ichigo shook his head irately.

"No. I didn't think she would."

"One can always hope, though, right, Ichi-tan?"

"First off, don't call me Ichi-tan. Second, don't call her Rukia-chan. Third… shut up."

"Ah, gomen… gomen." He said sarcastically.

With that, Ichigo finished getting dressed and looked over himself, he had to admit that he didn't look that bad. He was basically wearing a captain's Shinigami uniform, except the gi and hakama were white with black trim and the haori had black trim and didn't have a squad symbol on the back of it. He also wore the typical Arrancar shoes. Shortly thereafter, Rukia also finished dressing and came out of the bathroom. She was wearing a short sleeved, loose fitting dress version of the Arrancar uniform. The sleeves went down halfway to her elbows and went down to just below her knees. She too wore the Arrancar shoes, though they didn't go up as high on her legs as they did on Ichigo's. Instead, they only went up to just above her ankles. Ichigo had to admit that she looked cute in the dress. Apparently, someone had put a pale blue ribbon among her clothes as well, so she was also wearing her hair tied back in a ponytail. Ichigo blushed at this thought, silently scolding himself. Apparently, Kisuke's pervertedness was starting to wear off on him. He groaned, but then he heard Luppi giggle outside as they followed the male Arrancar to breakfast.

"Oh, Kuchiki … I have a question for you. Please give me a succinct answer," Luppi said jokingly. Rukia nodded, wondering why he had suddenly started calling her by her last name.

"What is 2+1?" he asked. Rukia looked at him. Was he making fun of her? Probably, but it couldn't hurt to answer, she guessed.

"3."

No sooner had she finished saying that than did a blinding flash fill the hallway. When Rukia's vision came back, she saw that Luppi had taken a picture of her in her Arrancar uniform next to Ichigo.

"What was that for!?" Ichigo demanded. Luppi grinned irritatingly and said,

"No reason. I just never thought that I'd actually get to see you in Arrancar robes. It's just hilarious."

_Man! If Gin was willing to pay me for a photo of Rukia in that ribbon, think what he'll pay me if he actually gets to see her in person wearing it!_ Luppi thought with a laugh as he opened the door to the throne room where Gin, Aizen, Tôsen and the Espada were all sitting at a long table that was made slightly longer, now to accommodate Ichigo and Rukia. Aizen smiled and Gin grinned broadly.

"Well, here you go. Enjoy your breakfast…" Luppi said cheerfully, closing the door behind him as he left. He smirked as Ichigo and Rukia sat down and he heard Rukia yelp in embarrassment.

"W-what!? You mean Aizen _didn't_ put that ribbon in my room!!??" Rukia shouted. Aizen shook his head, still smiling.

"No, course not, Rukia-chan. I did!" Gin said bluntly. "I was just thinking, 'damn! Rukia-chan is already so cute! I bet she'd look even cuter with a ribbon in her hair!"

Rukia blushed heavily and was about to pick up her Zanpakutô and attack Gin with her released form, but she quickly thought better of it. Instead, she glared at Gin and continued to take her breakfast.

"Sorry. It makes you look so innocent, though… like the Virgin Mary…" Gin finished, laughing pervertedly. Rukia noticed that Noitora was also snickering.

"Just what is that supposed to mean!?" Rukia raged. She couldn't believe Gin was doing this to her. She always knew that he was a jerk, but she never knew him to be so blatantly cruel, though he had to be if he had been willing to kill her back in Soul Society with his own blade. Suddenly, Noitora leaned over to her and whispered in her ear.

"He's saying you almost look like a virgin, Pet-chan."

"I GOT WHAT HE SAID, PERVERT!!" Rukia shouted, slapping Noitora across the face and punching him in the gut. She only really succeeded in hurting her hands because of his Hierro. Noitora laughed and just ate his breakfast silently after this.

After breakfast was finished, Aizen went over to his throne and took something out of a boxlike pedestal and summoned Rukia over to him. She hesitantly stood and strode over to Aizen, trying not to look too unsure of herself. She knew that this was all a test of her own self esteem. She knew that she had never slept with anyone before. That was all that mattered, right? Still, she was so embarrassed that Gin had not only been in her room, but given her clothes to wear that were merely for his own pleasure. She liked the dress, but she never liked ribbons for some reason. That was why she couldn't understand when she saw it why Aizen would give it to her. She figured that he had to have a reason, though, so she wore it, knowing that at least she was being polite, even if nobody else was.

She then stood in front of Aizen and looked at him directly in the eyes, but almost immediately looked away due to his reiatsu. It was crushing her practically just by its sheer intensity. Aizen looked at the Hôgyoku in his hand and absorbed the ball of swirling energy into his fingers before touching Rukia's forehead. Suddenly, Rukia felt an intense, but cool energy coursing through her veins, as though she were receiving an insane new power. She knew what Aizen was doing, but she wasn't exactly happy. Unfortunately, she couldn't resist much because of how much more powerful than she Aizen was.

A few seconds passed and it seemed as though that would be it. But then, Rukia fell to the ground, writhing in agony as a mask slowly began to form over her face. Aizen watched in amusement as the mask slowly took the form of a Gelugon (pg 56 Monster Manual). Soon the grisly mask finished forming and white, chitinous armor began to form its way down Rukia's back. Ichigo looked on in shock. He knew that Aizen was a monster, but he never guessed that Aizen would do something so irreparable to Rukia.

"Now, Miss Kuchiki…" Aizen said calmly. "You have approximately 58 minutes and 43 seconds to defeat your hollow, lest you be swallowed up by it. You don't really want that, do you? Kurosaki-kun, you're free to watch her if you like. I suggest that everyone take out their swords in case she attacks someone."

With that, Aizen sat down and watched as Rukia writhed on the floor in agony as the hollow slowly took her over.

—Rukia's Mindscape—

"Hiya, _Lady Rukia_…" came a cold voice from above Rukia. She looked up and saw a negative version of herself standing in midair. It immediately did a flip and landed on its knee before turning to face Rukia. Smirking, it then showed its pointy teeth and flexed the wings on its back. Rukia pulled out her Zanpakutô and released it, shouting out her second dance.

"Tsugi no Mai!! Hakuren!!" Rukia shouted, blasting her hollow form with a blast of ice. The hollow tried to dodge, but the ice still froze its arm. It cursed as it fell to the frozen tundra that was Rukia's mindscape and smashed its arm against the ground, freeing it from the ice's grasp. It then smirked and launched itself into the sky, doing an aerial dive at Rukia, using its sword to slash at Rukia. Rukia suddenly shouted, "Some no Mai! Tsukishiro!" and a huge pillar of ice shot up directly at the hollow Rukia, freezing everything in its path, including the Hollow. With that, Rukia began to walk away, but as the ice crumbled, the hollow fell out and stood back up.

"Tell me, _Lady Rukia_…" it said cruelly. "Why is it that you so faithfully follow that Ichigo around? You could be stronger than he if you tried. What are you? His faithful sidekick? Why shouldn't you be in charge?"

"Ichigo doesn't think of me that way! I'm not anybody's sidekick! I'm Ichigo's friend, and he's my friend!"

"But how can you be so sure?" the hollow asked softly, practically hissing the "s" in "sure". Rukia felt a shiver run through her spine as the hollow spoke. She found herself doubting her friendship with Ichigo. Was her confidence in him really so weak that it could be shaken by a monster like the one in front of her? She was disgusted with herself, and yet, she couldn't stop thinking of that possibility. NO! It wasn't possible. Ichigo would never look down on her like that. He loved her… right?

"I'm sure because I know what kind of person Ichigo is! I'm his best friend!"

"HA!! Best friend!?" the hollow scoffed at Rukia, knowing that it was getting to her. "What would give you that impression!?" it asked. Rukia blushed heavily and glared at the hollow.

"H-he cared enough to follow me into Soul Society when I was about to be executed. He was ready to die for me!" Rukia shouted back, feeling as though she had to continue answering, lest she lose the resolve that she still had left.

"Please! He followed that Inoue bitch into Hueco Mundo. He risked his life for her too. He did it because he felt guilty. Not because he cared or anything stupid like that!!"

"Y-you're lying!! How dare you slander him like that!!??"

"You don't sound so sure of yourself anymore. Why don't you prove just how confident you are in him? If you can beat me, I might apologize."

Without warning, Rukia attacked and purposely shattered her blade on the hollow's sword. She then grabbed the hollow and jabbed it with the broken end of her sword.

"San no Mai Shirafune!!" she shouted, and smirked as the blade suddenly reformed right through the Hollow's gut.

"Fine. You win for now. But don't ever forget what we talked about…" it said coldly, dissipating into the frosty air.

—End Rukia's Mindscape—

Finally, her mindscape dissolved around her and Rukia came back to the throne room in Las Noches. Aizen clapped quietly and looked at his stopwatch.

"39 minutes and 50 seconds. Not bad at all. I'm impressed. Now, you will hold the mask for as long as you can. We need to see if you will need the basic training that most Vizard need. I never did, but Gin certainly did, as did Tôsen. So, you'll be sparring with Tôsen to find out how long you can hold your mask for," Aizen said, grinning at Tôsen, who bowed low and looked coldly at Rukia, gesturing for her to follow him. She nodded and slowly followed the tall, stoic man out of the room. Aizen then looked at Ichigo, who by now was rather flustered. He was annoyed that Aizen had forced Rukia to become a Vizard. He was sure that she hadn't wanted to. Still, Aizen looked at Gin, who grinned and grabbed Ichigo by the hand, pulling him out of the throne room.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

Tôsen commanded Rukia to don her hollow mask again, which Rukia did promptly, not wanting to provoke the seemingly stoic captain. Despite the fact that he always seemed very calm, he was not a very friendly person, and Rukia had always gotten the chills around him.

"Tôsen, may I ask you something?" Rukia asked politely. Tôsen looked blindly at her and nodded as though wishing that she wouldn't. Despite this, Rukia pressed on, not really caring what he thought.

"Why did you follow Aizen to Hueco Mundo? I don't think that you're a bad person, and no sane man would willingly associate with hollows. You say that you follow the path of least bloodshed, but the war that is inevitably going to come of Aizen's betrayal will undoubtedly spill the blood of hundreds if not thousands of innocents. Do you really believe that the upcoming war will prevent the need for fighting after that?"

Tôsen looked at her, surprised at her eloquence. It was rare to find a woman with such grace and natural ability to speak. Well, now he thought about it, it was rare to find a man with such a natural ability to speak as well. He couldn't argue with her that the war was going to cause bloodshed. He had always in the past believed that Aizen would unite the Hollows and Shinigami under himself and lead them to a more peaceful existence.

"Lord Aizen has promised to unite Shinigami and Hollows alike under his own banner to lead them to a more peaceful existence."

"Do you really believe that to be possible? If those Arrancar weren't afraid of being punished by Aizen, how long do you think they would tolerate you?" Rukia asked. Tôsen cursed under his breath. Her words rung true, and played on his own doubts about Aizen's ambition.

"It is not my place, nor is it yours, Miss Kuchiki, to question Lord Aizen and his ambition," he said, cutting the conversation short. He drew his sword and attacked Rukia without releasing it, not believing that he would need to, given Rukia's level of ability. Rukia's skill with Kidô far surpassed her skill with a blade, and at the moment, her reishi was unstable at best and downright shaky at worst. That meant that she would have more trouble using Kidô and other moves that required precise manipulation of one's reiatsu. He merely narrowed his eyes and used a Shunpô to take Rukia's back, slashing at her. Rukia looked and immediately used Shunpô as well to escape by jumping over Tôsen. The girl was clever. Perhaps a bit cleverer than Aizen expected. Tôsen would have to warn Aizen to be careful of Rukia when he finished this sparring session. But, he didn't want to see Rukia die for some reason. She seemed such a small, even insignificant person, but she was very important to many people, and despite himself, he couldn't bring himself to dislike her, in spite of her enmity for Aizen. He used another Shunpô and attacked her a second time before immediately flash stepping into a third attack, both of which Rukia deflected.

"Some no Mai! Tsukishiro!" Rukia shouted, freezing a pillar of air around Tôsen, who managed to escape for the most part, but had his sword arm frozen. He cursed. Rukia was good. She had used the attack far enough ahead of him that by the time he got through it, the attack would still graze his right arm.

"Hadô #63! Raikôhô!!" He shouted, blasting the ice apart with a Kidô. Rukia gasped as he grabbed her and slashed at her. He hesitated at the last moment, though, and she used that opportunity to flash step out of his grip and get behind him in the air. While flying through the air, Rukia used a Cero beam to attack Tôsen from behind. Tôsen turned around just in time to see it and dove out of the way, watching as the spot in which he was just standing was disintegrated right before his eyes. He cursed and released his sword, sending a flurry of blades at Rukia using his Shikai's ability. Rukia dodged all of these but one, which grazed her arm and left an elongated cut along it. Rukia hissed in pain and shouted, "Tsugi no Mai! Hakuren!!"

Suddenly, three blasts of ice shot out in front of her and attacked Tôsen. The blind Shinigami tried to dodge the three rays, but failed at dodging the last one, getting frozen by it. Fortunately, though, he, too, was excellent at Kidô.

"Thirty-two sunrises overcome an eternal night, traversing over a contorted amber distance. Flicker into existence, you who writhe in agony. Shatter your bonds, reduce to ashes, plummet! Hado #43! Tarnished Cradle of Loki!"

Fire erupted around Tôsen's fist and he punched the ice that surrounded him, making it explode into a huge wave of water and fall to the ground. Despite the fact that Rukia probably wouldn't be able to defeat him, she was doing amazingly well, even if it was because of her increased abilities due to her Hollow mask. Tôsen used a Shunpô and checked the clock. Rukia and he had been going at it for over three hours. If it didn't end soon, he was starting to think that he might need his Hollow mask as well. He pondered this for a moment and then sighed, donning his mask. He knew that if he used his Bankai, she would have no chance against him. His Bankai cut off all of the senses, save for plain intuition, as had been proven by Zaraki when the two battled in Soul Society on the day that Tôsen defected. The only thing that Tôsen regretted about defecting was leaving his friend behind. He was sure that they would meet again someday, and maybe when that time came, he would be able to see her, and know what she looked like. How he loved his friend, but he knew that she never saw him as anything more than that… a friend. It was true that it upset him, but he liked to think that he was over it, even though he knew that he really wasn't. Finally, Tôsen donned his Hollow mask and used Shunpô to charge Rukia and hit her with a point blank Cero beam. When he did that, however, he realized that he couldn't kill her, and he stopped, allowing her time to retaliate again. She fired her own Cero, hurling him backwards into the wall.

At that exact moment, Gin walked in and grinned at the scene before him, seeing that Rukia was still wearing her mask. It had already been seven hours, and Gin had been charged with checking up on their progress. Tôsen jumped down and walked over to Gin, removing his mask and looking coldly at him through his milky white and blind eyes. Gin merely grinned even more broadly and said, "Are ya' really havin' so much trouble keepin' up that ya' have to use your Hollow mask, Kaname?" he asked cheerfully. Tôsen looked at him coldly and snorted.

"Would you like to take my place instead, Gin?" the tall, dark man asked, narrowing his eyes. Gin shook his head and smiled in a falsely apologetic manner.

"No, no. You keep on pluggin' away, buddy! Ya' just don' want Rukia-chan ta' think you're weak, do ya'? If she gets that impression, it might be all over for ya'."

"You needn't worry about that, Gin. I have it well under control."

With that, Tôsen turned and put his Hollow mask back on, jumping back into the battle and attacking Rukia with a Kidô.

"Mita koto ga nai you na, shikisai-tachi, Hajimete no kanashimi to, Ego wo tsutsu no da, nikushimi sae, Kami to akuma ga odoru! Hadô #4! Byakurai!" he shouted, sending a blast of white electrical energy straight through Rukia's shoulder, causing her to retch in agony. She cursed loudly, but jumped back up, flipping in midair and healing her own wound almost instantly with a Kidô. However, Rukia was getting extremely tired. She wasn't sure how much longer she could fight for. If she continued like this she would surely die. All of the other Vizard were at least lieutenant level when they became Vizards. However, she was not. She was fifth seat material at best without her mask, and maybe lieutenant with her mask. Not much more, though.

Tôsen cursed and slowly built up a large ball of red energy between his hands to fire a Cero at Rukia. He then fired it off with a careless flick of his wrist and watched as the beam flung itself at Rukia's person and swallowed her up. Instantly, Tôsen felt bad. He was afraid that he may have killed her. First of all, Rukia wasn't a bad person, so he didn't really want to kill her. Second, he knew that the other guy… Ichigo… wouldn't just take her death sitting down. He would be sure to make some kind of noise about it, and Aizen wanted to keep Ichigo relatively happy in his new environment. He therefore rushed over to Rukia immediately after the dust cleared and tried to find her. However, she wasn't where she had been just a second ago. She had used the opportunity to sneak behind Tôsen and attack him with another Hakuren. Tôsen was flung across the room and crashed into the wall right next to the clock. Rukia had been going for ten straight hours. The time seemed to go more quickly when he was fighting.

Rukia seemed about to attack again, but then she cursed, finding that she could no longer hold the mask that was giving her such a power boost. The white and black mask shattered into hundreds of pieces, finally turning into little more than reishi dust. She then fell to the ground from midair, having fallen unconscious from the exertion of holding the mask on for that long. Tôsen jumped up and used Shunpô to make it over and catch her in time. However, this happened just as Ichigo decided to saunter into the room and see Tôsen catching her. He looked at Rukia, then at Tôsen, noticing that Rukia was covered in scratches and small burn marks. It was easy to tell that they would all heal fairly quickly. Beyond that, he wasn't sure quite what Tôsen had been doing to her, but he didn't really like it.

"It isn't what it seems, Kurosaki-san. She merely fainted from the exertion of having to defeat her inner hollow and then immediately fight using her mask. It is hard work holding the mask on for an extended period of time, as you yourself well know."

"Fine," Ichigo said indifferently. "It isn't like I was going to ask. I'm sure you have your own method of doing things, Tôsen, and I don't really think that you're a bad person, in spite of who you associate with. I'll take her back to her room, though," Ichigo finished. It wasn't like Rukia belonged to him. She had chosen to follow him into Hueco Mundo, fully knowing the dangers that it posed. She knew of the Arrancar, and she knew of what Aizen did to Shinigami and Hollows alike. Ichigo couldn't really be angry at Tôsen for what Aizen chose to do.

He picked Rukia up and hoisted her onto his back, carrying her out of the room, being careful not to drop her. She felt so warm on his back, her gentle breath curling its way down his neck. Ichigo suddenly blushed at this thought and tried to banish it from his mind. In spite of his attempts, though, he couldn't get Rukia off his mind. He had been really nervous about letting her go off with Tôsen in the first place. It wasn't that he didn't trust Rukia. It was that he didn't completely trust Tôsen. Despite the fact that Ichigo didn't _think_ Tôsen was evil, he wasn't at all sure, and he knew that he had to be careful around him, and around Aizen for sure.

Ichigo himself had just gone through the training from Hell. He had been forced to fight Gin nonstop without using his Hollow mask. Gin showed him a secret, though, for learning to hold his Hollow mask for longer periods of time quickly. It was a form of meditation where the person completely retreats into their soul and fights the hollow over again using the mask. In this way, one can eventually force the Hollow to "beg for mercy", as Gin put it. He explained that because Ichigo wasn't using his Hollow mask, his inner Hollow was asleep, so it wasn't learning any of the stuff that Ichigo was learning, and therefore, Ichigo would have that advantage over it. He had to remind himself to teach it to Rukia.

When he got the two of them back to the room, albeit with a little bit of help from Nel Tu, who had regained her memories and reverted to her normal form and gone back to serving Aizen, though she no longer was an Espada, which she didn't really mind, since she despised fighting so much that she was glad to be rid of the burden of always fighting to keep her position. She wasn't embarrassed to be underneath Noitora, who had decided to make her a member of his Fraccíon just to mock her. Instead of getting angry, though, she merely accepted his request, which annoyed him to no end. At the moment, though, she was helping Ichigo to lay Rukia down in her bed and take care of her for the time. Just as Ichigo was about to lean over and kiss Rukia on the cheek, though, they were interrupted by Grimmjow, who smirked.

"Wow, Ichigo! I'm jealous!!" he said mockingly. "You got _two_ bitches to fuck!!"

Ichigo cursed and looked coldly at Grimmjow.

"What do you want, Grimmjow!?" he asked icily, glaring at the blue haired Espada, who after an extended silence, spoke.

"Aizen-sama has ordered all Espada and Vizard down to the throne room. Since _Little Rukia_ is too tired to go, though, she can stay and rest!" He shouted gruffly. Neliel looked at Grimmjow disdainfully. Noticing this, Grimmjow smirked. "Whaddaya want, huh bitch!? Ya want some of this, cuz' I'll be more than happy to kick your ass before I rape it!"

"I despise fighting, and I despise men who treat women as though they are mere objects. However, if you attempt to lay your filthy hands on Miss Kuchiki, I swear to you, I'll show you no mercy."

"Why do you care, bitch!? Everyone can tell that you're jealous of Rukia-chan! You'd love to see her dead so that you could have Ichigo to yourself, wouldn't you!?" he scorned. Nell shook her head coldly.

"No. It is true that I envy the relationship that Kuchiki has with Ichigo, but I want Ichigo to be happy…"

"Yeah, righ…" Grimmjow began. He was cut off, though, by a devastating reiatsu that was emanating from Ichigo, who had donned his hollow mask.

"The length of time that I can hold this mask? One minute. The amount of time I'd need to kick your sorry ass? Thirty seconds, at the most. Don't you dare talk about Nell or Rukia that way again! You'll find that I'm not so friendly the second time you annoy me!" Ichigo said, his icy golden eyes portraying pure bloodlust. Grimmjow cursed and reminded Ichigo to get to the throne room, which Ichigo did, following Grimmjow out of the room and leaving Nell and Rukia behind.

As soon as Ichigo and Grimmjow were out of hearing distance, Nell looked at Rukia.

"You heard all of that, then?" she asked. Rukia nodded, wondering how Nell could possibly have known that she was awake through the whole conversation.

"Then know that I wasn't lying. I promise, I won't let anyone hurt you. You and Ichigo belong together. I can see his love for you in his eyes. How I long for him to look at me with those same eyes. Don't think that means that I dislike you, though. You make Ichigo happy, and that's all I really need to know."

"Thank you, Nell. Why did you stand up to Grimmjow? Do you really think that you can defeat him?"

"Yes. In spite of the way that I look, I used to be the Third Espada until Noitora and Szayel disposed of me by knocking me unconscious and throwing me into the desert. Despite that, I am still much more powerful than Noitora, and have always been more powerful."

"I-I see. So, perhaps I should go see what Aizen wants," Rukia said morosely, not really wanting to leave the relative comfort of her room. She knew that she would never sleep as well in this room as she could in Ichigo's room, or in her own bed back in Soul Society. She would have to adjust, though. With that, she stood and walked out of the room and made her way down to the throne room, where she was sure that Aizen had to have some major news in order to pull them all out of whatever they were doing to mention it to them. She also had a feeling that she knew what it was. She had been feeling an incredibly dense and even oppressive reiatsu resonating throughout the fortress since that morning, and she believed that Aizen had finally found a Vastorode to convert into an Arrancar. That would mean that he was one step closer to completing his army of Arrancar, and he could march on Soul Society and be nearly unchallenged in his coup of the government and his assassination of the Kami-sama. Rukia had feared this was coming for a long time, now, and what was worse was that she was actually slightly eager to see what a Vastorode looked like before it was converted into an Arrancar.


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

The Espada, Gin, Tôsen, Ichigo, and Rukia sat around the elongated table, watching as Aizen approached a figure underneath a large white cloth. Obviously a Hollow, Ichigo was sure that he knew what was happening, and he was somewhat morbidly excited to be able to see it for himself with his own eyes. Though he was supposed to be a Shinigami, and Shinigami were supposed to hate Hollows with their very being, he didn't personally hate Hollows. If he had learned anything from his time as a Shinigami it was that Hollows did what Hollows did, and Shinigami were there as damage control.

The entire group watched in awe as Aizen touched his hand to the Hôgyoku and absorbed it into his hand, touching his two forefingers to the Hollow's head. He then turned to the group and smiled gently.

"Friends, this is the first Vastorode that I have ever transformed. Rejoice, for we have now moved one step closer to our goal of destroying Soul Society and creating a new world order in which Hollows and Arrancar rule!"

The Espada cheered loudly, and Ichigo forced a smile to grace his face, though he didn't feel it at all. The reiatsu that was radiating off of this new Arrancar was devastating. It was almost as bad as Aizen's own reiatsu, though Ichigo had never seen the full extent of Aizen's abilities. Finally, Aizen dropped the Hôgyoku back into its holder and removed the cloth from over the new Arrancar's head, looking at it with great interest.

"Tell us, friend. What is your name?" he asked quietly, smirking to himself as he did. The Arrancar stood up and bowed to Aizen. He was a tall, slender fellow with shoulder length spiky black/blue hair and piercing, angular red eyes complete with a sharp looking nose and gleaming white teeth. The remainder of his mask was in the form of a white, spike covered triangle on the back of his head that siphoned off into a strip that traveled halfway down his spine. The Zanpakutô that he wielded was a monstrous claymore that was almost as long as he was tall and as wide as his extremely thick arm.

"Klurichir…" the Arrancar said distantly. Aizen's smile drooped slightly, though not because he was unhappy.

"Greetings, Klurichir. I would be honored if you would become the Primera Espada."

Klurichir nodded, and immediately had a large number "1" tattooed on his arm before he was given a white shirt and trench coat version of the Arrancar uniform and he left to get dressed. Aizen looked at Stark, who sighed, sure that he was no longer a member of the Espada. However, Aizen said calmly, "Stark-kun, would you object too much to being the second Espada?" Stark shrugged and lifted his shirt so that Aizen could change the tattoo, which he did immediately by casting a large scale tattoo spell that changed the tattoos of all of the Espada, booting Yammy out of the group. Yammy, infuriated that he was no longer one of the Espada, attacked Aaroniero Arrurrierie in an attempt to keep his position. Aaroniero released his Zanpakutô, though, and swallowed up Yammy, devouring him. Aizen merely chuckled at Yammy's foolishness, and Gin grinned widely. Tôsen sat stone still, and Rukia shuddered, remembering her fight with Aaroniero. Ichigo rolled his eyes. He was glad that Yammy was dead. He never liked Yammy. He was crude and a real jerk, though not as much one as Grimmjow was. Fortunately, Ichigo could easily beat Grimmjow, now. In fact, he was strong enough to be able to beat Halibel on his own, probably, though he would not be able to beat Barragan, and he would stand no chance against Stark. He wasn't too worried about having to fight Stark, though. He didn't seem the violent type, and he didn't even seem motivated enough to want to fight. It seemed that Stark was a very laid back kind of guy, especially for a Hollow.

Now that the ceremony was over, Ichigo planned to go back to his room to meditate using the new method that Gin had taught him. As he was about to leave, though, Aizen stopped him, requesting that he remain behind. This caused Ichigo to get a nervous look from Rukia and an evil grin from Gin. Ichigo ignored both, though, and went over to Aizen, bowing slightly, knowing that it was in his best interest to be at least minimally polite. Aizen smiled coldly and began to speak. "How is your training going with Gin, Kurosaki-kun?" Ichigo sighed in relief and shrugged.

"Well, it's only my first day, so I'm not sure if I could really say how it's going. Gin is a tough teacher, but I've learned a lot."

"Has he taught you how to use Kidô, yet?" Aizen asked in what would have been an interested tone. Ichigo shook his head.

"No. I know a few spells, though. I'm not completely inept," Ichigo said, somewhat defensively, not wanting to be seen as weak by Aizen, who he knew would take advantage of any weakness that a person showed. Aizen nodded, grinning.

"I see. What is the highest level spell that you can cast?" he asked, knowing that Ichigo couldn't possibly be very good at Kidô just yet. Ichigo shuddered and steeled his nerves in front of the taller, much more powerful man.

"I-I can do level 10 Hadô, and level 7 Bakudô," Ichigo said quickly. Aizen nodded as though he were expecting that answer.

"About what I expected…" he said. "I'm going to personally see to your Kidô training. Gin isn't as well suited for Kidô as I am, and Tôsen is going to be busy with Rukia. With that in mind, do your level 10 Hadô on me. I want to see how powerful it is."

Ichigo shrugged, glad to be able to attack Aizen.

"Egyptian pharaohs, Ra of the Sun and the Living. Osiris of the Moon and the Dead. Use your godly power and bring thy ancestors to the underworld safely. Hadô #10! Hoteruchion!" he shouted, sending a blast of sound directly at Aizen. Aizen watched with slight amusement as Ichigo cast the spell and then took the damage head on, not seeming to get so much as a scratch on him. Ichigo didn't notice, but Aizen did cough slightly when the spell hit him from the force with which the sound waves went through him. Aizen was hard to hurt, so to do any type of damage at all was pretty impressive. That meant that Ichigo had a great deal of potential for Kidô, perhaps even greater than Aizen's own. Aizen didn't want to think about that, though. If Ichigo ever became more powerful than Aizen, it could prove a major problem in his plans for Soul Society.

"Alright. You are done for today. You'll begin tomorrow working on Kidô with me after morning sparring with Gin. Be sure to get a good night's sleep."

"I'm worried about Rukia. Tell Tôsen not to be too rough with her. I worry about her sometimes." Ichigo said in a moment of vulnerability, forgetting that Aizen wasn't his friend. He knew inside that Aizen was only using him and Rukia, but he still didn't want Rukia to get hurt.

Ichigo was sure that he saw a cold sneer on Aizen's face for a second before it went back to its usual, pleasant smile. He nodded and said that he would tell Tôsen for Ichigo, though Ichigo wasn't sure if he would. He could already feel a knot in his stomach like he knew that Aizen was going to try to use that against him.

Ichigo nodded and forced a smile at Aizen, who smiled back. Ichigo was proving easier to get along with than Aizen had expected. He had initially assumed that there would be a great deal of resistance on Ichigo's part, but he attributed Ichigo's docile behavior to Rukia being there. Aizen knew that as long as Rukia was in the picture, Ichigo wouldn't risk letting her get hurt. That meant that he had a good chance to manipulate Ichigo to his will in the time that they were together, and by the time Ichigo was strong enough to do anything about it, Aizen could have him completely obedient and willing to do anything, including kill Rukia. He didn't expect this process to be easy, but he did expect that he could do it. Ichigo was young and at an impressionable age. He didn't particularly need Rukia, so the sooner he could get rid of her, the better. He knew that Rukia was only a distraction for Ichigo, and he would have to make Ichigo see that as well. That exact moment wasn't the time to do it, though. Ichigo was extremely attached and deeply in love with her, so any affront to Rukia would be an affront directly to Ichigo. He would have to personally instruct all of his Arrancar and Gin and Tôsen not to harm Rukia in any way. The other problem that he had never anticipated was that Tôsen seemed to have a slight soft spot for Rukia. Perhaps she reminded him of his nameless friend. Such silly sentiments would have to go. He couldn't suffer a sentimental fool like Tôsen. But now that he thought about it, that Neliel Tu Oderschvank was a real piece of work as well. She was madly in love with Ichigo, though she wouldn't directly admit it. She had gotten all excited when she heard what Aizen's plans were to get Ichigo on his side. Such fools he had to suffer. It was a wonder he didn't just kill everyone but Gin and the Espada and start over.

Ichigo walked into Rukia's room and smiled at her sadly. He had seen the look on Aizen's face. It was a look of hatred and disgust, and of loathing for Rukia. Aizen said that he never bore a grudge, but something about Rukia, Aizen didn't like. Maybe it was just because he hated the Kuchiki family in general? Ichigo couldn't even begin to figure out Aizen's motives. What really didn't make sense was that he would really bear such a grudge that he would want to kill her so summarily. If he had wanted to kill her, couldn't he just have waited until the Arrancar/Shinigami war and used that as an excuse to find and murder her? It would have been so easy. Instead, he concocted an elaborate plan to murder the Central 46, have Rukia arrested by her brother and Renji in particular, have her gigai confiscated, have her sentenced to be executed by means of the Sôkyoku, move the execution date up three times, stage his own death, then reveal himself to not only be alive, but to be the perpetrator, steal the Hogyoku and murder Rukia before making a spectacular exit from Soul Society via Negación by Menos Grande.

Looking back at Ichigo, Rukia sighed, knowing that something was wrong. Knowing Ichigo very well, she could honestly say that she could read him like a book. His emotions were forfeit to her, and unlike Aizen, she actually cared about Ichigo.

"Ichigo, what's wrong? And don't lie and say 'nothing'. I know that isn't true."

"I'm just… Tired," he lied. There was no need to upset Rukia. Whether she would or wouldn't take his advice seriously, there was no immediate danger. Ichigo wasn't brilliant, but he knew that as long as he was in love with Rukia, Aizen wouldn't risk alienating him by hurting her, and he didn't expect to stop being in love with Rukia anytime soon. Therefore, he figured that they were both relatively safe.

Rukia knew that Ichigo was lying. But she also knew that he was as stubborn as a mule, and that he wouldn't tell her how he was feeling very readily. So, she didn't press it too much.

"Alright, Ichigo." Rukia said, resigned. Then, "I-Ichigo?" she asked, sounding very vulnerable and shy, and feeling even more exposed.

"Yes, Rukia?" Ichigo asked, trying not to look at her. He knew that if he did, he would just want to put his arms around her. Then he would want to kiss her, and if he did that, he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to stop kissing her until she promised to be his forever. And if that happened, he was afraid that he might make a mistake and take it all the way, and he didn't think that he could handle that, no matter how good it might feel in the moment.

"Ichigo, please look at me…" Rukia said, tears filling her eyes. Ichigo forced himself to lay eyes upon her, and just as he had expected, he suddenly wanted to just hold her in his arms forever and never let her go. He was entranced by her subtle grace and beauty, and her sweet demeanor, and nothing would ever change that… ever.

"D-do you… love me?" she asked, blushing bright pink as she asked this of him. It was the most embarrassing thing that she had ever had to do, and her heart felt like it was going to explode. Frankly, Ichigo felt the same way. What was she saying? That she actually loved a loser like him? That she actually wanted to be with someone so mediocre, so unremarkable? He couldn't understand it, and yet every fiber of his being screamed out for him to say yes, that he did love her, and that he had loved her for so long. He wanted to tell her how painful it had been to have to hold his feelings in, to not be able to express his love for her in front of her. He wanted to tell her how scared and vulnerable he felt around her. How afraid he was of being rejected if he did ever confess to her. Was he really that pathetic? Was he really so weak that he could let himself be hurt so easily. It was unfair. And in the midst of his undying love for her, he couldn't help but resent her. Resent her for making him a prisoner of his own feelings, for forcing him to live a lie every goddamn day. How he wished he could run away from her and never see her again. He didn't deserve someone as wonderful and… _perfect_ as she was. Yes. Perfect was the best way to describe her. She was flawless, not only in her beauty and grace, but in her personality as well. That witty, sarcastic smile that graced her lips when Ichigo did something stupid. Her fiery spirit that was like an inferno inside her, one that couldn't be extinguished with something so insignificant as words. And just as her fire couldn't be quenched with words, neither could she be described with mere words. She was just so… amazing. Nothing in the world could compare to the times that he was able to see a smile on her face. Her smile lit up everything around her and made her glow with a soft silver light. Rukia didn't have to do anything to be radiant. She didn't need to wear a miniskirt and a tight shirt that left so little to the imagination as to make one wonder why she bothered wearing clothes at all. She was the very embodiment of perfection in the much more modest and demure wardrobe that she had always preferred. And that was just one of the things that intoxicated him about her. YES!!! He did love her, but could he tell her that and ever be able to look her in her gorgeous, sparkling blue eyes again? He couldn't lie to her, though. It was something about how she was looking at him that was making it hard, nay, impossible to lie to her.

"Y-y-yes…" he muttered. Rukia looked at him, her forehead wrinkling. She couldn't hear him.

"What? You need t-to speak up…" She was so embarrassed, and she could tell that Ichigo was embarrassed, too. He had taken so long to answer her. Did that mean that he was trying to think of a polite way to say "no"? No!! She couldn't think that way. She didn't know what she would do if he said no. Her heart would be broken, shattered into a million pieces.

"N-never mind!!! I-I don't want to know!!" she cried and ran out past him, unable to stop crying. As she ran out, she slammed right into Tôsen and was thrown back. Though Tôsen hardly felt the impact, he did notice it, and he looked down to see a sobbing Rukia on the ground beneath him. Rukia sat there for a minute and then scrambled up, muttering a jumbled apology to him and ran past him, not saying a word. Tôsen was sure that he knew what had happened, though. Instantly, terribly brutal thoughts went through his mind.

_How dare Kurosaki lead her on and then break her heart!!? How could he do that to such an innocent girl as Kuchiki? I'll have to deal with him myself since I know that Aizen-sama is too busy and Gin won't give a shit and Rukia is too shy and quiet to do something so confrontational!_

And with that, Tôsen strode into Ichigo's room and grabbed him, slamming him against the wall, donning his hollow mask and charging up a Cero beam to destroy Ichigo's head. At the moment, he didn't care that Aizen wanted Ichigo. He was going to make the boy pay for what he did.

"W-what the fuck, Tôsen!?" Ichigo asked, donning his own hollow mask and flash stepping out of his grip.

"How dare you break Kuchiki's heart like that, Kurosaki!? Do you have any idea how much she loves you!? Can't you see it in her!? Have you no morals!?"

"What are you talking about!? I didn't say a damn thing to her! She asked me out of nowhere if I loved her and then she just started crying and ran out of the damn room! Why would I break her heart… Besides… I don't deserve someone as amazing as Rukia, no matter how much I love her."

"It isn't a matter of being deserving of her. It's a matter of love. If you love her and she loves you, then you should be together, whether you _think_ you deserve her or not!"

"What do you know, asshole!? The only thing you care about is your precious justice!!"

"Watch what you say, boy!!" Tôsen said sharply. "I was once in love, too. It was ages ago, it seems. I've never even told this to Aizen-sama, but I think you might be the perfect person to tell. You're so thickheaded… just like I was back then. I was blind back then as well, but there was a woman that I knew, that unlike others, was always kind to me. She would sit and talk to me, and we would sit out at night under the stars. Even though I couldn't see them, there was nothing that I loved more than those moments with her. I too believed that I didn't deserve her love, so I never told her how I felt about her, and eventually, she married a Shinigami and joined the Shinigami Academy as well. After that, her husband killed her in a jealous rage or something of the sort and I knew that I would never again have the chance to tell her how I felt. That was why I became a Shinigami… To serve the cause of justice that she so staunchly defended. My story ended a tragedy, but yours doesn't have to. You have to tell her how you feel. As amazing as Kuchiki is, she can't read minds."

"Wait… You love Rukia, too, don't you, Tôsen?"

Tôsen looked away, slightly abashed and nodded.

"Yes. I do, but she'll never feel the same about me. The best that I can hope for is for her to be happy with you. Please allow that dream of mine to come true."

"I will. Thank you, Tôsen. Maybe you aren't such a bad person after all."

With that, Ichigo extended his spiritual sense and searched all over Las Noches for Rukia, not sparing any expense to find her. He had to. If he wanted things to ever be right between them again, he would have to make sure that he found her quickly.


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Rukia tore through Las Noches, sparing time for no man, woman or Arrancar. She couldn't believe how stupid she had been. She couldn't believe that she thought that Ichigo really loved her. Perhaps Nell had been wrong about Ichigo. Maybe he really didn't love her. She couldn't believe how humiliated she was. In fact, she was so blinded by her own tears that she didn't notice the tall figure looming in front of her.

Aizen looked up, surprised as Rukia slammed into him as well. It seemed to be a habit of hers at the moment. Aizen helped her stand up and pulled her in, hugging her loosely. Oddly enough, Rukia didn't object. She merely hugged tightly the much taller and older man, needing his presence to calm her soul. For some reason, Aizen comforted her. It was exactly the opposite of what it should have been, but it was the way it was, so she might as well not fight it.

"What's wrong, Miss Kuchiki?" Aizen asked gently. Rukia stood back and wiped her eyes off.

"I-I-I t-tried… I tried to ask Ichigo if… if he loved me, but he… but he didn't answer…! I'm so humiliated!" she sobbed. Aizen smiled comfortingly toward her. Perhaps splitting them up would be easier than he thought. If this was all it took to shake Rukia's confidence, then he could easily destroy their relationship.

"That's a shame. Perhaps it just wasn't meant to be. Why do you think Kurosaki came to save you in Soul Society?"

"I-I thought it was because he cared about me!!" Rukia protested. Aizen smiled and shook his head.

"No… He thought that he owed you something. Ichigo isn't the type of man to fall in love, but he is an honorable man, and he believes in paying back his debt. He saved Miss Inoue for the same reason. He believed that he was the reason that she was kidnapped, though she came of her own free will."

"N-no!! Y-you're lying!!" Rukia cried, though she wasn't sure anymore. Just as Aizen was about to cement his victory by pulling the last straw, Ichigo burst in and called out Rukia's name.

"RUKIA!!!"

"I-Ichigo!!??" Rukia said, trying to run. Ichigo used Shunpô, though, and cut her off.

"At least let me say something before you run off in tears!"

Rukia tried to run the other way, but Ichigo again cut her off and grabbed her, pulling her tightly to his chest.

"Please, Rukia-chan. Don't ever run away like that again. I'd like to talk to you, but, I don't think the current atmosphere is very conducive to conversation," he said, knowing full well that Aizen had been trying to manipulate her again.

"Oh, don't mind me…" Aizen said in false kindness, walking away, silently cursing. In less than a minute, Ichigo had ruined his plan to split them up, and Rukia was believing every word that he said. It was going to be harder than Aizen thought… Or maybe not. With Kyoka Suigetsu, he could make anything seem like anything else. Maybe he could conjure up an image of one of them cheating on the other, or worse, make it seem like Ichigo was gay by having it be with Grimmjow, or Ulquiorra or something. Then, they would hate each other and it would be easy to kill Rukia without Ichigo caring at all.

Ichigo looked into Rukia's bright blue eyes, wishing that he could hold her forever. If he could just remain in her arms forever and she could remain in his, he could die a happy man. As it was, he needed to finish talking.

"Rukia, you never let me finish. I didn't answer right away because I was shocked by your question. I do love you. More than I've ever loved anyone. More than I could ever love anyone else again. I just… Never knew how to say it. I think that I do, now, though. Please be mine, Rukia. I know it sounds stupid, but I just can't express anymore how I feel about you."

"Ichigo…" Rukia said quietly, a smile gracing her lips, and then… Their lips touched, brushing together before pulling apart. Again, then, their lips touched in a gentle kiss. Ichigo prodded at Rukia's mouth for entrance, and Rukia allowed him in, using the chance to enter his mouth as well. Instead of the battle of tongues that one usually saw on television, it was more of a dance, a gentle, yet passionate reaction to each other as they held each other in their arms. Finally, they broke apart. They weren't having sex, but Ichigo was still the happiest man in the world, and he didn't think that anything could make the moment better.

AN: Sorry this chapter was so short. I couldn't think of much to write. The next one will be longer, I promise.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

Ichigo sighed in discontent. He hated Hueco Mundo. He hated the monotone sky and the lack of sunlight in the eternal night that was the Hollow Desert. However, in the year that he had been in Hueco Mundo, he had grown tremendously, as had Rukia, though her progress was less remarkable, and basically added up to her achieving Bankai and mastering her Hollow mask to the point that she no longer had a time limit that she could hold it for. She had done as Gin had taught Ichigo and withheld information from her hollow. Oddly, Gin seemed a bit different as well. He was always quiet and he never smiled anymore. It was like he was sad about something, but unwilling to say anything about it. Thus far, even Aizen had been unable to elicit any information from him except that he was thinking about an old friend.

Beyond Gin, though, Ichigo, too had mastered his inner Hollow to the point where he and his inner Hollow truly fused and he no longer needed his mask to draw on the power of his hollow, as it was permanently imbued into him. He could shoot terrifyingly powerful Cero and even more powerful Kuro Getsuga Tenshô. To boot, he had begun to learn how to fire a Gran Rey Cero as the Espada were able to do at will, though this took a lot out of him since his hollow half and his Shinigami half were still not quite even. Ichigo had also grown extremely adept at using Kidô, so much so that he was able to do high level Kidô without their incantations, though he much preferred to use the incantation because of the fact that they were much more powerful when he did, and he needed the power. The highest level Kidô that he could use was Hadô #90, which seemed to also be Aizen's signature. Of course, Ichigo's wasn't nearly as powerful as Aizen's, even with the invocation.

The problem for both Rukia and Ichigo was that Aizen was growing afraid of Ichigo's rampant growth in all of his Shinigami and Hollow abilities. Even Aizen could never have predicted that Ichigo would become so powerful. It was unbelievable. His potential seemed nearly limitless, though Aizen knew that to be impossible. He knew that there had to be a limit that Ichigo would at some point hit, but it wouldn't be anytime soon, because Ichigo was about half as powerful as Aizen, and still seemed able to grow ten times more powerful than him, if not more than that. The brown haired former captain sneered at his bad luck, knowing that he would have to put Ichigo down, lest he truly surpass him and take his place as leader of the Arrancar. As yet, Ichigo was at about the level of the Primera Espada, even in his released form, Ichigo would prove a match, though, so very soon, he would need more powerful minions or Ichigo dead. Whichever came first. Gin could sense that Aizen had lost control over Ichigo's growth and that he was going to kill him the first chance that he got. Then he would kill Rukia. Gin couldn't have that. He liked Rukia. She was a sweet girl, and he knew that she was friends with Rangiku and that Rangiku would never forgive him if he let Rukia die on his watch He knew that he needed to escape, along with Ichigo and Rukia and get them and himself safely to the Vizard. Ichigo and Rukia had already completed their basic training. Rukia was a beginner with her Bankai, and Ichigo was an expert because of their intensive training that usually lasted all day if not well into the night. Aizen had put something in their foods that made it so that the expenditure of reishi actually refueled their reiatsu and therefore, they only had to stop to eat and take a breath every now and then and of course, to go to the bathroom. They didn't need sleep. Of course, if they didn't ingest the catalyst daily, it would stop working and they would crash. There weren't any real harmful effects of the drug, but if taken for too long, it might cause dependence. Aizen didn't care about that, but Gin did. Gin never needed the drug. By the time Gin went to Hueco Mundo, he was already more than powerful enough, as was Tôsen.

As Ichigo was thinking about all of this, Gin and Tôsen both barged into the room, seeming quite worked up about something or other. Gin opened his eyes for a moment and looked at Rukia.

"Kuchiki, Kurosaki… We have to leave… tonight. To aid us in your escape, we brought Neliel-san. Please get your Shinigami clothes on and follow us!" Gin said quietly as Tôsen cast an illusion spell around the room to make it look like a wall. That would fool the casual eye, but anyone who inspected the wall more closely would notice that there was a door missing because all that the spell did was blur the image of the wall so that it looked as though it stretched past the door. In short, it was a mere glamer.

"W-what? Why!?" Rukia asked urgently, obeying nonetheless.

"Because, Aizen-sama is going to kill you both tonight. He told both Gin and I!" Tôsen said just as urgently. Ichigo looked hard at them.

"I might have believed Tôsen, but why should I believe Foxface here!?" Ichigo asked skeptically.

"Lies cannot pass over me, Ichigo. I know them to be telling the truth. Please don't hesitate!" Neliel said quickly. That was enough for Ichigo. Rukia ran into the bathroom to get some privacy and came out mere moments later in her Shinigami uniform, and Ichigo changed, not caring that he was in front of other people, including a lady. Nell couldn't handle it, though, and had to look away. Perhaps it was for the best. After both Ichigo and Rukia were finished, they took their swords and followed Gin, Tôsen and Nell out through the door and turned a sharp left, where they immediately ran into Grimmjow. Tôsen stepped forward and glared at the blue haired Espada.

"Seventh Espada Grimmjow Jeagerjaques, I command you to move at once!" he ordered. Grimmjow merely smirked, though, flashing his sharp white teeth and fingering his Zanpakutô. He drew it and attacked Tôsen. The former captain was too quick, though, and sliced clean through Grimmjow's arm once again.

"Goodbye, _former_ seventh!" Tôsen said coldly, forming his hands to do a Kidô.

"Hadô #63!! Raikôhô!!" he shouted, hitting Grimmjow dead on with a huge blast of lightning and then immediately donning his Hollow mask and doing a Cero at point blank range into Grimmjow's mouth, destroying his head.

Grimmjow's body fell into a heap and then disintegrated and blew away a fine pile of dust. Ichigo looked in shock at Tôsen, as did Rukia. Neither ever knew that he was that powerful. He was one to watch out for.

Tôsen felt bad about disobeying Aizen. Although, technically, Aizen had never specifically said that they were not allowed to try and aid Ichigo and Rukia in an escape. Since Aizen never specifically forbade them to do said activity, it seemed to Tôsen that it was theoretically alright. This helped him feel a little bit better as he led the troops down the long and winding hallways out to where the door to the outside was.

Fortunately, nobody was guarding the door that night, and they could silently make their way out into the raging desert storms that kicked up every so often. They waded through the desert, moving by instinct and staying together by their spiritual senses. After what seemed like hours, they made it to the spot that Gin and Tôsen had picked out in advance.

"This is where you leave." Tôsen said, sad to see Rukia go.

"W-what about you, Gin? Tôsen?" Ichigo asked. The two looked at him. Tôsen spoke first.

"Gin will be going with you. I will not. I still believe in Aizen-sama's ambition, and the next time we meet, we will be enemies, and I will not hesitate to try to kill you."

"Hmm… Interesting. It seems my two lieutenants and a former Espada have caught some little mice trying to escape. That is what happened, correct, Gin? Kaname? Miss Oderschvank?" he asked in false hope. They all knew that Aizen knew what was going on. Gin knew all along that Aizen had set them up to do this. He knew that they would try to aid Ichigo and Rukia in their escape from Hueco Mundo. Tôsen knew that he had to do something fast. And he couldn't do just any attack. He donned his Hollow mask, fully ready to die that night. He knew that his time had come, and that it was time for him to atone for the sins that he had committed. And so, with a heavy heart, he said back to Rukia.

"Miss Kuchiki, before I die, I wanted you to know that I love you. I wish you the best with Kurosaki."

Next, he looked forward at Aizen, knowing only him and seeing only him, even through his blind eyes. Ready to cast a Kidô, he began to chant.

"Weep for your sorrows. Weep for your anger. Weep for your vice. Face them and smile for joy as the waters of life hold them at bay. Bakudô #90! Seriyu's Rapport!!" he shouted, sending a mighty dragon of reiatsu enforced water at Aizen, making it wrap itself around him. Aizen merely smiled and said nothing as Kaname then proceeded to use another Kidô. He knew that he was taking a huge risk, but he had to draw out the incantation as long as he could, because a Hadô of the same level or higher than its corresponding Bakudô will inevitably break the bonds and free the captive person held by the binding spell. He was going to use _it_. Aizen's signature.

"Inquisition. Clouds of blood. 40 years of darkness in the starry black sky. Form thy sword and mold thy shield and take up arms against thine enemy! Hadô #90! Kuro Hitsugi!!" he shouted, having drawn it out as long as he could. Behind him, he could sense Gin, Ichigo and Rukia disappearing into the human world while Nell waited for Tôsen to finish his Kidô. That night, Nell had been given a piece of Tôsen's Zanpakutô to keep so that she could see through his Bankai. That would be a necessary ability to have in order to fight Aizen.

As the Kidô ended, Tôsen noticed that Aizen wasn't in his bonds anymore. In fact, he was right next to him.

"It's a shame, Kaname. It didn't have to be this way. You grew soft, though… Goodbye, old friend…" Aizen said cruelly, slashing Tôsen's head clean off with his Zanpakutô. He then looked at Nell, who was watching the barrier between the human world and Hueco Mundo close. She could see Gin, Ichigo and Rukia on the other side watching their every move. They were horrified that a level 90 Kidô hadn't even been effective at all on Aizen. They knew then that they stood no chance.

Slowly, Aizen approached Nell, his sword drawn. Nell released her Zanpakutô, waving goodbye to Ichigo and charged at Aizen, dodging at the last moment and tried to pierce him through his back. Aizen easily sidestepped, though, and attacked her, cutting her in half where her horse half met her human half. She fell over, slowly dying in the raging sands of Hueco Mundo. She silently wept tears of gratefulness that Ichigo had been able to escape with his life and that he would be happy with Rukia. Her life was no longer important as long as Ichigo and Rukia were safe. Apparently, Gin was also trying to turn over a new leaf, so she was glad for that, too. As she felt the blackness encroaching on her, the gate to the human world closed all the way and barred Aizen from using her sword again for twenty-four hours to go into the human world. That meant that her sword could never again be used for his evil plans, because it would die with her.

Rukia, Ichigo, and Gin jumped along the tops of buildings, trying to avoid being seen by anyone who just might be able to see Shinigami, which would prove a problem, since Ichigo and Rukia were both said to have died in the battle against Gin a year back. As far as Urahara's report, he had said that both were murdered by Ichimaru Gin when they were incinerated by a Gran Rey Cero at point blank range. Though there had never been any proof that this happened, there also had never been any proof that it had not, and therefore, Kisuke's report was accepted as the truth by the Shinigami Council of 46. He had also in the year that Ichigo and Rukia were gone, been invited to rejoin the Gotei Thirteen, though he refused the offer. In fact, if Rukia's information was correct, he was still running his shop in Karakura Town.

Ichigo looked suspiciously at Gin, who wasn't smiling at all. He didn't trust the silver haired man. He had the face of a fox and the tongue of a snake. Thus far, he had been successful at weaseling out of explaining why he followed Ichigo and Rukia out of Hueco Mundo. No more, though. Ichigo wasn't taking one step further until Gin explained himself.

Ichigo grabbed Rukia and cut Gin off, glaring at him coldly and staring deep into the tall man's eyes.

"Gin… Before we go on, you owe us both an explanation. One year ago, you threatened to kill Rukia-chan if I didn't cooperate with you. Then you allowed Rukia to follow me into Hueco Mundo. Today, you tell us that you are going to run from Aizen with us. What is your motive? What do you get out of all this?"

"Would you believe me if I told you that I'm doing it for a friend?" Gin asked quietly, looking hopefully at Ichigo. Ichigo snorted and shook his head, though.

"Why should I believe that?" he asked coldly. Rukia stopped him, though.

"If you're going to interrogate him, at least listen!" she snapped. Ichigo nodded and looked back at Gin, who smiled and said.

"Anyway, I have lamented my decision for about six months, now, and I decided to contact Soul Society using a scrying Kidô. The first person that I talked to was the Commander General. Knowing that he wouldn't believe me right away, I had to bring proof, so I started to record Aizen's doings using a reiatsu tracking node that Aizen uses to keep track of his Arrancar, and I put it in his food. This allowed me to watch everything that he did, and record it exactly as it happened. I then brought this proof to the attention of the Commander General, who employed me once more as a spy. Aizen never suspected any of this, and he was used to me being a secretive person, so naturally, he just left me be and as long as I did my job, he didn't bother me. I then contacted Rangiku and told her that you two were still alive. Naturally, she didn't believe me at first, either. She felt kind of betrayed by my leaving Soul Society, and I don't really blame her for that. Eventually, she believed me, though, and she said that she really wanted to be able to see Rukia and Ichigo again, so I promised that I would do that. So she's the one that we're going to meet right now. I planned this escape to coincide nicely with the time that she is spending in the human world on assignment. Of course, Captain Hitsugaya still doesn't trust me, so he'll be there as well to make sure that nothing happens to his lieutenant."

From that, Gin said nothing more, and he just moved on ahead and led Ichigo and Rukia through Karakura Town toward where their meeting spot with Rangiku and Tôshirô was going to be. Ichigo still wasn't sure that he trusted Gin, but the story made an odd sort of sense. For that reason, Ichigo decided to trust Gin for the moment and go along with his plans. Mostly, Ichigo felt guilty about getting both Tôsen and Neliel killed, though he knew that Neliel would probably go to Soul Society, since she was a hollow, though he wasn't entirely sure of what happened to Arrancar once they were destroyed with a Zanpakutô. He had never asked about that. Did that mean that they were erased from existence? He had to know.

"Hey, Gin!" Ichigo said harshly. A little more harshly than he had meant to, perhaps.

"Yes, Kurosaki?" Gin asked, grinning as he always did. He was just so used to that fake smile that he didn't even really notice that he was doing it anymore. Smiling didn't mean anything to him anymore. He knew that it bothered people, but maybe he just couldn't help it. Perhaps it was just his lot in life.

"What happens to Arrancar after they are killed by a Zanpakutô?" Ichigo asked. Rukia looked at him. That was an unusually thoughtful question for Ichigo.

"Well, I believe that they go to Soul Society, like any Hollow would, though I don't really know for sure… I've never actually found that out. Sorry…"

Ichigo shrugged and didn't say anything more until they got to the spot and stood directly under the light that Gin said that they'd be under. Unlike in Hueco Mundo, Gin was wearing his Shinigami uniform, which he had stored away in his chambers as a keepsake.

After what seemed like hours, two shadows formed in the distance. One was short and spiky on top and one was taller and seemed to have a lumpy head, though it was obviously hair. Gin grinned. Hitsugaya and Rangiku were finally there. Suddenly, the two of them disappeared from Gin's sight and then reappeared in front of him. Rangiku fingered her sword nervously, not sure at all if she was safe. She felt safe around Ichigo and Rukia, and having Hitsugaya there helped her confidence a bit. However, she was still a little shaky about seeing Gin again after two years of being away from him. For the longest time, she had been so in love with him. She thought that after he left, she had gotten over that, but it all came rushing back to her the moment he contacted her from Hueco Mundo. She knew the spell that he used, and it took a lot of energy to do, especially since he was doing it transdimensionally. He needed the incantation just to make it powerful enough to reach, and the transmission was still a little bit fuzzy, which was sometimes a problem when they were trying to talk for long periods of time. He seemed truly sorry, but she just didn't want to be hurt by him again. She remembered crying into her pillow at night when she was alone. That was why she drank so much. Maybe she was pathetic, but she tried not to think about it too much. That would only make her more depressed. Therefore, she just looked at Gin, not saying anything, though what she didn't know was that her silence said more than her words ever could.

"Hi, Matsumoto… It's been a long time, hasn't it?" Gin asked. It was sort of a ridiculous question. Of course it had been a long time. Gin had made it so. He was the one that decided to abandon Soul Society. Rangiku couldn't figure out why Gin did that, and Gin always avoided answering, so she assumed that it was an answer that he knew would upset her. But now, she needed to know. Before she could forgive Gin, she needed to know his motivation for betraying her in such a way. He had just left her and not looked back, so she wanted to know why, and she felt that she deserved that much at least.

"Gin, you've avoided this up until now, and I've accepted your avoidance as guilt, but no more. You will tell me right now why you did what you did," Rangiku said forcefully, shoving Gin up against the wall behind them, her icy blue eyes staring directly into his crimson red ones. Gin didn't cringe one bit. He had known that this was coming, and he was ready for it. He wasn't afraid anymore. He didn't know if she would forgive him, but he also knew that he would never be able to forgive himself if he didn't fully explain himself to her.

"Well, Matsumoto, I suppose that it's a pretty old tale. I was seduced by the promise of power. Aizen was my superior at the time, and he approached me one day with an offer that drew me in. He said that he could make me a very powerful man, and he wasn't lying. He had already reached his limit by then in the Shinigami arts and converted himself to a Shinigami/Hollow hybrid. He showed me the spike in power that one receives when they become hollowfied. He said that I had a lot of potential and that he could make me second in power only to him. It was appealing, and I accepted his offer, not thinking about the fact that it would eventually mean that I had to leave Soul Society behind," Gin said, finishing his story with a sad smile. He then gently knocked Rangiku's hand off of him and started to walk away. Rangiku stopped him, though, asking him where he was going.

"Me? I'm not going anywhere. I was just standing back a bit. It's more conducive for the situation. I can't face my former comrades back in Soul Society again. The only honorable way out is death. I want you to kill me, Matsumoto-san." Gin said. Rangiku gasped, shaking her head violently. She couldn't kill Gin. She was angry at him for betraying her, but she didn't hate him. No. She was still in love with him, and she refused to kill him.

"Well, if you won't… Captain Hitsugaya? Please kill me…"

The request was simple enough, and he didn't mind at all killing him. In fact, he very much hated Gin for his betrayal of Soul Society. However, he wasn't sure that he could do it. He looked at Gin and nodded, drawing his sword and going into a ready position. Despite his preparedness to kill, he could see Rangiku's face in the corner of his eye, and he knew that it would upset her if he killed Gin. He knew that she loved Gin. He really respected Rangiku, and didn't want to upset her. When she was upset, she drank even more than when she was happy. That wasn't the reason that he wouldn't kill Gin, though. The reason was that Rangiku loved Gin, and Hitsugaya, despite being known far and wide as cold and mean, even, wasn't heartless, and it hurt him to see Rangiku unhappy.

"No, Gin…" he said quietly, putting his sword away. "I won't kill you. You have reasons still to live. You still haven't atoned for your crimes. If you ever manage to do that, I might come back and kill you then. Until then, though, don't you dare die!" Tôshirô threatened, holding his sword to Gin's neck and then putting it away. Gin sighed and nodded.

"Alright. I think that I'll join the Vizard, then. Kurosaki? Kuchiki? What about you? They seem to be the most logical choice…" Gin said. Ichigo and Rukia nodded.  
"Well, I guess it's convenient that we're right here by the Vizard's home base. However, we can't go in at night. They are likely asleep right now, y'know?" Ichigo said, walking away toward Urahara Shoten. That was where his body was stored, and he wanted to go home for at least one night before he left again so that he could see his family.

"Rukia-chan? I'm sorry to say this, but… could you please stay at Urahara Shoten for tonight?" Ichigo asked politely. Rukia looked at him strangely.

"W-why?! Don't you want to be with me? We're free! We don't need to split up!"

"It isn't about that. I'm going home for a day or two so that I can see my family again, and I just… I'm not sure… I'm just nervous, that's all." Ichigo said, looking away, slightly embarrassed.

"Why are you nervous, Ichigo? It's your family, right?"

"What if they're angry at me, though? I just left one day and never came back. My sisters are a whole year older, now. I missed Christmas. I missed their birthday. I missed their moving up. They're in sixth grade, now. Soon, they'll be going to secondary school. How much have they changed? What if they don't need me anymore?" Ichigo asked, his voice growing broken and more pressured, like he was going to cry. Rukia could see his left eye twitching slightly, his lower lip quivering. He was really upset. She had never seen him so upset. He always kept such a brave front up that nobody would know that he was so sensitive sometimes.

"Ichigo…" Rukia said, holding him gently and kissing him on the cheek, wiping away the tears from right under his eyes. He was trying so hard not to cry.

"They're your family. Listen to yourself. You're being ridiculous. They aren't angry at you. I can guarantee that. They'll be happy to see you. Your father will probably say something stupid like, 'HEY, BOY!!! YOU DIDN'T GET ANY GIRLS PREGNANT WHILE YOU WERE AWAY, DIDYA!?' and Yuzu-chan will be crying hysterically, hugging you as tightly and Karin-chan will be there, too, and she'll probably try not to look too surprised, but she'll cry as soon as she's alone," Rukia said kindly. She knew how Ichigo could get. She knew he was overreacting.

"I-I guess you're right."

With that, Ichigo and Rukia split up and each went their own separate ways, Ichigo to his house, and Rukia to Orihime's house. She wasn't about to stay in that perverted asshole's shop with him. Even though Ururu and Jinta and Tessai were all there, she was very wary of Kisuke and what he could be like.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

Ichigo snuck into his house through his window, looking around his room to make sure that nobody was there. All he really wanted to do was sleep a little bit. He hadn't slept in a long time and it was one thing that he missed about being human. For some reason, apparently one didn't need to sleep in Hueco Mundo, though he wouldn't have been surprised if Aizen had drugged his food. He was sure that he saw Aizen putting something in his dinner at night, so he never fully trusted his meal. He always ate, though, because he was always hungry when Aizen served dinner. Actually, it was one of the Arrancar that cooked, so Ichigo didn't know exactly what he was eating, but it tasted good, so he couldn't complain.

Unfortunately, when he got in his room and started to climb into bed, he got the strangest feeling that he was sleeping up next to someone. He pulled down the blankets and noticed a young looking girl in his bed. Naturally, he screamed.

The girl shot up in bed, falling out of it. It was just Karin, but he had actually been sleeping in the same bed as she was. Even if it was a mistake, that was just wrong.

"Wh-wh-who are you!!? M-my father is home!! H-he'll be here any minute!!" she shouted, unable to stop shaking. She crawled backwards against the wall, terrified of her own brother. Ichigo looked sadly at her. She didn't even remember him. Did his leaving the human world erase all memory of him? It wasn't fair!!

"K-Karin-chan! I-it's me! Ichigo!!" Ichigo protested. He couldn't believe that she was screaming at him like that. It hurt.

"LIAR!!! Ichi-nii died over a year ago!! We went to his funeral!! He's buried at Karakura Cemetary!! I had just started to move on!! H-how dare you do this!!?" she shrieked, just as Yuzu and Isshin barged into the room and stared in shock at Ichigo. Isshin could tell right away that it was Ichigo, but Yuzu was just as terrified as Karin.

"DADDY!!! There's a predator in the house!!! He's trying to hurt Karin-chan!!!" she cried. Ichigo looked at them in disbelief.

"WHAT!!?? I would never lay a hand on Karin!! I-I…" and finally, he got it. They had moved on. Their lives were just fine without him, and they didn't need him anymore. This was what he feared, but he never thought that it would be so bad. Karin had taken his room so that Yuzu and Karin could have separate rooms, and they were perfectly happy with him gone.

Tears filled his eyes as he ran and jumped over the bed and out the window. Yuzu sighed in relief.

"You scared him away, Daddy… Karin-chan, a-are you alright? D-did he… do anything to you!?"

"Yuzu, Karin…" Isshin said, being quite serious for once. "Get your coats. We're going for a car ride. I think I know where he's going." He said blankly. Then, he said, "I was afraid this would happen one day, so I put a tracking chip in him surgically. Wherever he is, we'll find him."

"You planted a tracking chip in a stranger!!?? DADDY!!!" Yuzu shouted. She didn't understand, but Isshin shook his head.

"No. That was Ichigo. He never died. He just… went away for a little while. It was vital that everyone believed he was dead. He thinks that we've forgotten about him, though. He probably can't stand the feeling. I know I'd be hurt, too if I thought my family had abandoned me."

Karin and Yuzu nodded stupidly and grabbed their coats from the downstairs closet, rushing out into the car and closing the doors. Isshin came out close behind and put a strand of Ichigo's hair in a box and looked at the screen.

_Just as I thought. Urahara._

Ichigo looked at Urahara helplessly. He was still in shock from what had happened, and he couldn't fully digest it all. Kisuke looked at Ichigo sympathetically. He felt bad for Ichigo. To see such a strong man so broken like that was indeed a hard sight to look upon. Kisuke had not lately felt any real moral duties toward anyone. He lost his sense of moral duty the day he abandoned Soul Society, but now, he was feeling that nagging sense on his conscience. He felt like he needed to help Ichigo in any way that he could. If Ichigo just needed a place to stay, then that was what Kisuke would give him. If he needed someone to talk to, Kisuke would listen. If he just wanted somewhere that he could mourn in peace, Kisuke would be happy to supply that.

"Come on in, Ichigo…" Kisuke said kindly. Ichigo nodded and followed the tall, blonde man into his shop. Kisuke sat him down at the table and went into the kitchen where Yoruichi was drinking some milk again.

"Hi, Yoruichi. Can you help me cook something? I can invent anything, but oddly enough, I can't cook to save my life."

"Huh? You want me to cook for you? Get Tessai to do it!!" she said irritably. Yoruichi always woke up and went back to bed when she pleased, but she was sometimes cranky when people requested things of her.

"It isn't for me. It's for Kurosaki Ichigo. He needs somewhere to stay."

"What about his house? Doesn't he have a family?"

"His family was probably so surprised to see him that he assumed that they had forgotten about him and ran away."

"Oh. That could be painful, I suppose. I wouldn't know. I was never very close to my family. I don't think they would care if I died. They would more likely scorn my memory for being so weak."

With that, Yoruichi started to boil some water to make ramen. It wasn't much, but she was pretty good at it. She was about to put in the noodles when a car pulled up to the front of the store and Kisuke walked out. He went out and looked hard at the people standing there. He wished that there was something that he could say to them, but there was honestly nothing. He knew that he had requested that Isshin _not_ tell Karin and Yuzu, that he go on pretending that Ichigo was dead. He wasn't surprised that Yuzu and Karin would be so shocked to see Ichigo again.

And so, with nothing to say, Kisuke went over to Isshin and smiled merrily, waving at him.

"Hello!" he said brightly. "You're lucky! We just started a sale on gigai! Fifteen percent off any body type!" he finished, bringing out his fan and waving it gently, fanning himself.

"Not interested, Urahara. Just wanna get my son back," Isshin said in an extremely serious tone. Kisuke nodded.

"Mr. Kurosaki is in the other room. He's probably just about to be served some homemade ramen."

Isshin nodded and walked inside, admiring slightly all of the trinkets that Kisuke had all over the place. He couldn't believe how much the store had changed since the last time he was in there… actually, it hadn't changed at all. Scratch that. He walked past all of the items and went into the dining room in back, silently observing Ichigo. He was trying desperately to stop crying before Yoruichi got in. He didn't want her to see him crying. If anything, that would embarrass him more than he already was. He would leave the next morning and go to the Vizard with Rukia and Gin. That was all he could think of to do. If his family didn't even remember him, he couldn't live there with them.

"Ichigo…" Isshin said, and for a moment, the two just stared at each other, silently agreeing not to say anything for a moment. Words didn't really need to be exchanged for Isshin to know that Ichigo was hurt. Ichigo didn't need his father to say anything to know that Isshin was sorry. All the apologizing in the world, though, wouldn't undo what had happened, the sheer terror that he had felt at that moment, the rejection that tore through his heart at realizing that he'd been forgotten and his memory left behind. Isshin was the first to break the silence.

"I'm sorry," he said. Ichigo knew that Isshin was sorry, but the words still felt good to Ichigo's ears. He stood and stared hard at Isshin, his forehead wrinkled, his face in his usual scowl.

"I'm not mad," he said. It was true. Ichigo couldn't be angry at Isshin or at his sisters. They probably were just unaware that he was still alive, that his death was a sham.

"You have the right to be, you know," Isshin responded. How much more could he say. It was like there was a barrier that mere words couldn't break at the moment. Only actions would break down the barrier between the two of them. They had just grown that far apart. So, Isshin dropped all pretense and jumped in the air, dropkicking Ichigo to the face. Ichigo grabbed his father by the leg and the old man hit the floor with a thud. Ichigo smirked in false annoyance.

"I-I see nothing has changed, goat face!!" he said irately. Yoruichi silently watched from the kitchen, smiling at Ichigo's father's ability to bring people together through his own idiocy. Ichigo had never said anything, but he wouldn't know what to do, quite, if Isshin weren't the violent ape that he was. It had just become part of their lives. As annoying as it was, and as much as Ichigo protested it, he couldn't live without it, and he had very much grown to miss it during his time in Hueco Mundo.

"So, how did you find me?" Ichigo asked, as Isshin stood up. Isshin smirked and held up Ichigo's Shinigami representative badge and thrust it into his own chest, expelling his soul from his body. Ichigo gaped in shock at what stood before him. His father was a Shinigami as well!? His dopey old dad!? He couldn't believe his eyes.

"You've become extremely strong in the time that you were gone. I barely recognized your reiatsu."

"Yeah, well, training day in and day out will do that to you."

At that moment, Yuzu and Karin ran in. Ichigo was already in his body, but his father had to jump in quickly to avoid being noticed like that. He didn't think that either of his daughters could see Shinigami, but he had to be careful. Karin was pretty sharp when it came to a spiritual sense. Karin watched irritably as Isshin stood up, but said nothing. She then looked at Ichigo apologetically, who smiled at her and went over to her, hugging her tightly, remembering not to crush her, fortunately.

"I'm so sorry, Ichi-nii!" Karin cried, tears falling readily from her eyes. Ichigo shook his head.

"It's alright. I'm just glad that you didn't forget me. I don't know what I would have done. Yuzu, come here for a minute. I need you, too, Dad. I'm gonna be leaving for a while tomorrow. There are some people that I need to stay with. Karin, you already know about my powers, but Yuzu doesn't. You can see ghosts, right, Yuzu?"

Yuzu nodded numbly, saddened by the fact that Ichigo was leaving again. She didn't know what he was talking about, though. Ichigo took his Shinigami Representative Badge and pressed it against his chest. Yuzu gasped as Ichigo was thrown from his body, clothed in Shinigami attire. Yuzu looked at Ichigo, unable to process fully what she was seeing. He had the strangest clothes on, and yet he was still the same Nii-chan that she knew. She could feel his presence, and she wished that he would stay forever, but knew it not to be possible. That was the sad part. Ichigo was growing up, taking on a full time responsibility that was even greater than school or getting a job, and he was leaving even his own family behind. She wondered what would happen if Isshin also turned out to be a… whatever Ichigo called it. Shinigami, was it?

"Well, now that the boy brings it to everyone's attention, I too must say something. I too am like Ichigo," Isshin said somberly, shoving the Representative Badge into his chest and thrusting his spirit out of his body. Yuzu shrieked in shock at this new revelation, and from the looks of it, Karin nearly fainted. Ichigo had to admit. Even he was pretty surprised by the whole thing. He had never expected his dumb old dad to be a Shinigami.

"I was once a captain in the Soul Society. However, on a routine mission, I fell in love with Masaki and decided to forego my life as a Shinigami and become a human so that I could get married to Masaki. Pretty romantic, huh? In fact, somewhere along the way, I lost my powers, but I got them back about a year and a half ago. Weird, huh?" Isshin said. Ichigo looked at Isshin like he was insane, but nodded.

"Yeah, Dad. Weird doesn't even begin to cover what this is."

With that, Isshin climbed back into his body and took everyone back to the car, packed them all in, and drove them all home, and that was that.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

"This is the place," Ichigo said to Rukia, looking at her. Rukia looked back, somewhat incredulous. She couldn't really buy that people as powerful as the Vizard would hang out in a dump like an old abandoned warehouse. It was rusting and… a dump. But, she could sense a strange power coming out of it unlike that of a Shinigami, but not quite that of a Hollow's. However, it wasn't quite like Aizen's whose was extremely evil.

"If you say so, Ichigo," Rukia said, shaking her head, not wanting to admit that she might be wrong. In fact, she was sure that she was wrong, but it just didn't seem right to house some of the human world's greatest fighters in a trash heap like that. Despite this, Rukia strode ahead of Ichigo and through the barrier. Gin and then Ichigo went after that. Gin looked at Ichigo and grinned.

"I'm not too sure they're gonna remember me fondly, Kurosaki-kun!" he said brightly, laughing much like Urahara did when he was trying to be annoying. Ichigo glared at Gin, who stopped smiling.

"Gin, if you're trying to change, change that stupid fake grin. From what I hear, it's been pissing people off for centuries!" Ichigo snapped. Gin frowned for a moment. Maybe Ichigo had a bad night or something, or maybe Ichigo was right. Maybe he did need to adopt a new expression. But smiling just seemed so natural, now, even if his smiles meant nothing. He smiled like a fox smiled. It was just part of his face. It was like his expression wouldn't be complete without a smile.

"Kurosaki? May I speak to you for a moment?" Gin asked, being more humble than usual. He wasn't wearing that cocky grin, nor was he pretending to be something that he wasn't. His eyes were open for a change, though Ichigo had to admit that Gin's eyes were a little bit scary… being crimson red like that.

"Huh? No need to be so formal. If you have something to say, just say it…" Ichigo said bluntly. Gin liked Ichigo's bluntness and honesty, though. It was so utterly different from Aizen's subtle manipulation and lies. It was like a breath of fresh air.

"Kurosaki, I'm a little nervous," Gin admitted. Ichigo looked at Gin oddly. Gin was never nervous of anything. He was always bright and cheery, as though he had just gotten out of bed with a beautiful woman… Actually, with Gin, that might just have been the case.

"Maybe I'll regret this, but why are you nervous, Gin?" Ichigo asked. Gin looked at him, showing a new side to himself that he rarely let out.

"I remember all too well the events of a century ago. I'm afraid they won't believe that I've changed."

"Well… ummm… I'm not really sure even I believe it. But, I guess you can only do your best, and whatever comes of it will…"

Ichigo couldn't believe that he was giving advice to Gin, of all people. He never thought that Gin would actually turn out to be a good person. Gin just pissed Ichigo off so much most of the time that he assumed that there wasn't much more to him. Despite the fact that assumptions weren't good to make, everyone made them.

"Ichigo!! Hurry it up!!" Rukia shouted, causing Ichigo to run after her into the building with Gin slinking in behind them.

At first, it was pitch black inside, but within moments, the lights went on and a group of people were shown to be surrounding them. A tall blonde haired boy grinned at them and jumped down from the top floor and greeted them.

"Hiya, Ichigo. It's good to see you again, but I can't say the same for Gin over here. What is he doing here, anyhow? Ah, wait, don't tell me. He was able to follow you because you suck so much at sensing reiatsu…" Shinji said sarcastically, snorting at his own joke. Ichigo cursed, wanting to pummel Shinji into a pulp for making such a comment, especially in front of Rukia. Was he _trying_ to make him look bad?

"No. He's with us…" Rukia said boldly. Shinji looked over at Rukia and grinned even more widely, starting to mutter "my first love…" He was cut off, though, by Ichigo, who pounded him on the head before he could finish.

"Feeling awfully violent today, aren't we?" Shinji asked. "Besides, it's not like she's your girlfriend, is it? She's a noble, and way out…"

"She is…" Ichigo answered abruptly, causing the entirety of the Vizard to look at him a little bit funny. They then all turned to Rukia, who nodded in confirmation.

"What? Is it that hard to believe?" Ichigo asked. Shinji nodded, completely dumbfounded, but Hiyori jumped down and smacked him across the face with her sandal as she usually did when she was pissed off at him, which was just about all the time, really.

"Don't say anything, dipshit! I think it's really romantic!" she shouted sarcastically. "Like Beauty and the Beast!"

"W-what was that, you little midget!!??" Ichigo shouted, pissed off that Hiyori had just called him a beast. He wasn't that bad… was he? He looked at Rukia, who shrugged and smiled like nothing was wrong in the least.

"I SAID, LIKE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, BALDY!!!" Hiyori roared, attacking Ichigo. Ichigo easily dodged, though, and watched as Hiyori crashed into the wall behind them. She cursed and pulled out her sword.

"YOU ARE SO FUCKING DEAD, BALDY!!!" she shrieked, launching herself at Ichigo as she put her Hollow mask on.

"Let's see how much ya've improved, Baldy! Maybe you can hold your Hollow mask for more than a minute!!?" she asked vindictively, attacking with her sword. Ichigo smirked and blocked her sword with his bare arm. He then thrust his hand out into her gut and threw her backwards into the wall without even putting on his hollow mask, breaking one of her ribs in the process. Rukia looked on and sighed. Had she known that Ichigo was going to have to fight immediately, she would have told him to be careful of his powers beforehand. Shinji looked on at Ichigo in shock. How could he have progressed so much in only a year!? It seemed impossible, and yet the proof was right there in front of him. Hiyori was unconscious and beaten against the wall, and there was a huge dent in the metal siding from where she had made impact. The long haired Vizard shook his head and donned his own Hollow mask.

"It's apparent, Ichigo, that no normal Shinigami or Vizard can defeat you as you are, now. Why don't we have a Vizard battle and see just how far you've really come?" he asked, smiling at Ichigo and drawing his sword. He knew that he would have to use his Shikai at the very least if he wanted to have a chance against Ichigo. However, he hadn't used his Zanpakutô in its released state in so long. He wasn't even sure that he wanted to do so. Unfortunately, it wasn't an option. Shinji released his Zanpakutô quickly, and without calling its name.

Ichigo brought Zangetsu up and blocked perfectly Shinji's strike. Shinji's released sword took the form of a scythe, though Ichigo didn't yet know what his ability was with the Zanpakutô in its released state. Therefore, he still had to be careful.

"Do you know what Torikaminari's ability is?" He asked with a laugh. Ichigo shook his head.

"You know I don't."

"Hôkuro Arashi."

"Getsuga Tenshô!!" Ichigo shouted in quick response, partially canceling out Shinji's attack, but not completely. A black fire enshrouded Ichigo all of a sudden and blasted him up against the wall. Ichigo wasn't in his Bankai form, yet, but perhaps he needed to be. Ichigo cursed, but thought of his training back in Hueco Mundo and knew what to do. He suddenly shot out from the dust and used a Cero to distract Shinji and then he used his Bankai and flash stepped behind Shinji and did a Kuro Getsuga Tenshô, blasting Shinji into the floor. Ichigo then removed his mask and jumped down onto the floor, going back into his normal Zanpakutô state. Shinji looked at him with unease. It was amazing how far Ichigo had come in the time that he was gone. By all logic, going into Hueco Mundo was suicide, even if he was with Aizen. Shinji would never trust the Arrancar to keep their peace with a Shinigami around. What he didn't understand was why Ichigo had brought Rukia around. Surely she wasn't a Vizard, so it didn't make sense that she would even be there.

"Hey, Ichigo, why'd you bring Rukia!?" Shinji asked, looking over at her for a moment and then looking back at Ichigo, hoping that she didn't see him staring.

"Oh, I didn't tell you? Aizen turned her into a Vizard, too," Ichigo said offhandedly, as though it were kind of obvious. Shinji grinned. The Vizard had another new member to their numbers. Now there were eleven among them rather than just nine. Shinji still didn't fully trust Gin, but if Ichigo said that he was alright, then he would accept that and see what happened if he let Gin in. One thing Shinji did know was that Hiyori wouldn't be happy when she woke up to find out that Gin was being accepted into their numbers. She and Gin had a particularly bad history, even before the events of 100 years ago. Back to the days when Gin was in the Academy, he was a pain in the ass for Hiyori. However, it looked as though he had gotten over his annoying habit of smiling like a fox, and that was probably a good thing, since nobody liked him before specifically because of that… Of course, there were other reasons that people didn't like him. That was one of the main reasons, though. Unfortunately, he didn't have time to think about his distaste for Gin at the moment, since he could feel a powerful disturbance in the area. It was the signature of another Shinigami, and one of captain level. It could be none other than one of the captains of Soul Society. Ichigo apparently felt it, too, because he looked around and then started to walk out of the building. Rukia tried to stop him, but Ichigo gently pushed her away and continued to walk. He knew that eventually he would come to blows with Soul Society. He had willingly gone to Aizen's side, and it was only a matter of time before Soul Society figured out that he wasn't really dead and put a bounty on his head. Ichigo could only guess that one of the captains had been assigned to take Ichigo and Rukia out.

When Ichigo got outside, he saw a tall, anthropomorphic fox in a Shinigami captain's haori. This made Ichigo assume that he was at least a Shinigami. Ichigo greeted him brightly, not really wanting to fight.

"Hey, can I help you with something?" Ichigo asked, knowing perfectly well what he wanted, but trying to stall the inevitable. He didn't want to hurt the extremely large Shinigami. He just wanted to be left in peace for a while.

"Um… Would you happen to know where I could find a man named Kurosaki Ichigo?" he asked, brushing his fur back a bit as if in embarrassment. "I do know what his signature feels like, but I'm afraid that it doesn't seem to be in the area," he said, looking around the docks. He had traced some powerful reiatsus to there, hoping that he could find out where his target was from them. They somehow seemed familiar to him, but a little bit unusual for Shinigami. No, not Shinigami. But not Hollows, exactly. Something of a cross between the two, and a fusion. It was actually kind of unsettling to tell the truth.

"Yeah. I know him. He's standing right in front of you…" Ichigo said jokingly. The Shinigami instantly pulled his Zanpakutô from its sheath and held it at the ready.

"Kurosaki Ichigo, you are under arrest by Soul Society for treason!" he shouted. Ichigo looked back to see Rukia and all the other Vizard staring out the windows onto the battle below. Apparently, they wanted to see what his full abilities were. Like he would even have to use his full abilities against one of this guy's power. It was true that he was a captain, and not to be underestimated, but Ichigo could feel his spiritual pressure, and it wasn't anything to write home about in comparison to the other captains. Zaraki had been much more powerful, and Gin was way stronger. Plus, he had seen Aizen lay waste to this guy, though he forgot the fox-man's name.

"Oh, get off your high horse!" Ichigo snapped. "I don't work for you, or your precious Soul Society! I was just a human until two and a half years ago! Your laws don't govern me! And if you even lay a hand on any of my friends, I swear I'll kill you!"

"You're as impertinent as they said you were, but Soul Society law governs all Shinigami, no matter whether they are human or otherwise. Please come with me, because I bear no personal grudge against you and don't want to have to be your executioner," he said bluntly. Ichigo sneered at this.

"Yeah right! I don't know who you think you are, but you should know that you can't possibly beat me! By the way, what is your name? I know I've seen you before, but refresh my memory a bit."

"Komamura Sajin, captain of Seventh Division." He said quickly, not wanting to draw out the introductions.

"I see. Well, goodbye, Captain Komamura. GETSUGA TENSHÔ!" Ichigo shouted, jumping to the right as soon as it shot off because of an attack that Komamura threw at him. He wasn't sure quite what the fox man's sword could do, but he knew to watch out for it. The man was huge, and likely a threat in a far wider radius around himself. If Ichigo wanted to get away from the battle unharmed, he would have to stay outside Komamura's threat range. Komamura swung at Ichigo, but missed by a large margin, noticing that Ichigo had moved to the left immediately after faking to the right and jumped into the air and was doing a Getsuga Tenshô already. Komamura tried to dodge the blast, but found it quite impossible, and took the hit head on. Unfortunately, he now knew that he would have to release his Zanpakuto.

He released his sword and a giant blast of reiatsu exploded around him, engulfing the immediate area. When the dust and the light cleared, there was a giant arm behind him that seemed ready to copy his every move. At first, he didn't use his sword, though. Instead, he began chanting.

"Scattered bones of beasts. Steeple, crimson, crystal, steel wheels. Wind if moving, sky if stopped. The sound of flying arrows fills the empty castle. Hadô #63! Raikô…"

Ichigo moved faster than Komamura, though, and grabbed his right hand, canceling out the Kidô with Hanki Sôsai.

"Hello!? Did you ever stop to think that you might damage something in the human world? Allow me to show you how a real Kidô is done. Inquisition. Clouds of blood. Forty years of darkness in the starry black sky. Form thy sword and mold thy shield and take up arms against thine enemy! Hadô #90! Kuro Hitsugi!" Ichigo said coldly, jumping back as a huge black box surrounded Komamura and skewered him with black knives of Kidô energy, similar to what they used back during the Spanish Inquisition. Ichigo turned around and began to walk away, figuring that Komamura was done for. Ichigo was actually a little bit tired himself from using such a high level Kidô, so he was glad of the chance to be done, but Komamura jumped back up, muttering something to himself. At that moment, his reiatsu flared up, increasing it by at least five times.

"Gentei Kaijo. Of course, you wouldn't know about that, would you? Since you were never an official Shinigami, you don't know about the protections put in place to prevent unnecessary influence in the human realm. You see, traitor, all captain and lieutenant level Shinigami, when going to the human world, are severely limited in their power through a small seal in the shape of their Division symbol placed somewhere on their body called a Gentei Reiin. When this Gentei Reiin is released through a process called Gentei Kaijo, our power is effectively quintupled."

"I see. Well, I have something that increases my power. It's called Bankai. I don't know if you've ever seen my Bankai before, but I used it once to smoke Kuchiki Byakuya. Bankai!" Ichigo shouted. Komamura watched as Ichigo was shrouded in black energy from his Zanpakutô. When he came out of the energy field, he was no longer wearing the jeans and tee shirt that he had been wearing. Instead, he was wearing something that was similar to the Shinigami uniform, but snugger fitting and it looked more like a robe on him. His sword looked more like a nodachi, now, and it was solid black with a black and red hilt and a black chain that hung off of the hilt.

Ichigo smirked as the dust finally cleared all around them, giving them leave to do battle once more. He was revved up and ready to go. It wasn't as though it was going to last much longer. He had learned how to end fights quickly in Hueco Mundo, no matter the odds. He had fought enemies much more powerful than Komamura and won, so he knew that he could beat this one. Of course, those enemies didn't have Bankai usually, but that was all beside the point. If worse came to worst, Ichigo could always use his Hollow mask and immolate Komamura with his Cero beam. During his time in Hueco Mundo, he had learned to be much less sympathetic toward enemies. Though he had always stood up to enemies of his friends, whether they were Shinigami, Hollows, or Bounts, he had trouble in the past killing those that weren't Hollows, because it was like killing another human. No matter how evil they were, he just couldn't do it. Now he could, though.

Rukia looked through the glass window in horror. She could sense what Ichigo was going to do, and she had to stop it. She never knew Komamura very well, but he was a captain of Soul Society, and killing him would make whatever Ichigo's punishment was that much worse.

"So, you ready to give up, yet, Captain-san?" Ichigo asked sarcastically. Komamura shook his head.

"I don't give up until I win."

"Well, then I guess this is the last mission you're ever gonna go on, eh? I'm sorry to have to do this to you."

Ichigo donned his Hollow mask, causing a huge spike in his power and he flew at Komamura. The anthropomorphic canine was already struggling to stand. It wouldn't take much to defeat him. A Bala would probably suffice. Ichigo charged the tiny Cero and sent it flying at Komamura, watching it hit him dead on. Ichigo smirked as Komamura gasped and went down, crashing to the ground. He then went to finish the job, but found that he couldn't do it. He didn't want to kill a perfectly honorable captain of Soul Society. He bore the general organization no grudge. With that in mind, he picked up Komamura and dragged his large body back into the warehouse, knowing that he would be unconscious for at least a few hours. That would be time enough to heal him, erase his memory, increase the power of the barrier and drop him off by the river so that he couldn't find them again. Although, in all truth, Komamura wasn't that badly injured. His wounds were minor compared to what had happened to him in Soul Society when he tried to face Aizen.

So, Ichigo turned back around and Flash Stepped away, moving through town with an agility unlike anything the other Vizard had ever seen. Ichigo had truly become a powerhouse in the time that he had been gone from them, and he was continuing to grow at a frightening pace. That meant that he might well become the most powerful man in existence if he continued his training like he was.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

"Hunh? O-ow!" Komamura said, twitching in agony. He tried to remember what had happened to him to give him such terrible pain… and then it hit him. He had lost in his fight to Kurosaki Ichigo. He had used the same Kidô that Aizen had used on Komamura. He had some new and terrible power that he was able to use. It was like a hollow's cero beam, but weaker and faster. Now that he looked up, he noticed that a girl was kneeling over him. He recognized her, too. What was her name? It didn't really matter, anyway.

"I-I'm fine, um… Miss…"

"Oh, I'm Inoue Orihime! I found you here by the river, and you were pretty badly wounded, so I started to heal you. What happened?" she asked kindly. Komamura relaxed slightly. She was a kind woman, and not squeamish at all, even at the sight of all that blood. She had been the same in Soul Society. She was an extremely solid woman, and her powers went beyond just healing. They actively could reject any preordained event and return them to their original state. Komamura looked at her, narrowing his golden eyes. So far, she hadn't asked about his appearance, which was unusual in itself, but especially for a human.

"That traitor Kurosaki beat me. I swore to Master Genryusai that I wouldn't return until I executed him myself!"

"Kurosaki-kun!!??" Orihime said suddenly, leaning toward Komamura intensely, startling the fox man. She stared intensely into Komamura's eyes, making him feel like she was staring right through his soul.

"Where is he!? Is he alright!? How does he look!? Is he healthy!? What was he doing!? Where was he!?"

"Um… H-he… He's fine. He was down at some storage units, I think…"

"Oh…" Orihime began. She was cut off by Komamura, though.

"I'd advise against looking for him. He's not the same person that you knew before. Aizen has changed him. He may not be Aizen's ally anymore, but he's just as evil."

"NO!!!" Orihime screamed. "He'd never hurt anyone!! You must've done something to make him attack you!! He would never attack anyone without a reason!! Why are you here, anyway!!??"

"I was sent here by Soul Society to arrest him. He's a traitor. He joined Aizen in betrayal of Soul Society."

"NO!!! He isn't a traitor!! No wonder he drew his weapon against you!! Just look what you were about to do to Kuchiki-san!! He's seen firsthand what you do to people you label as criminals!!"

"That isn't a fair accusation, girl!! That was all manipulation on Aizen's part!"

"Didn't anyone think it odd, though!? Even a little bit odd that the Council decided to _execute_ Rukia over small crimes such as illegal transfer of her powers and an overstay of her time in the human world!? Did anybody question it!?"

"Don't talk about Soul Society law like you understand it, girl!! Your impertinence is almost as frustrating as that traitor friend of yours!! Nobody is allowed in the Central 46 Chambers, and their decisions are final!!"

"But has anyone ever been executed for such crimes before!?"

"No, but that doesn't matter!? The Council's decisions are absolute, and cannot be overturned!"

With that, Orihime cursed loudly and stormed away. She wasn't usually the type to lose her temper. She was usually a quiet and submissive person, but she wouldn't listen to anyone talking badly of Ichigo. That was one thing that she couldn't tolerate, and if someone did, she would be sure to set them straight.

"And don't think that I'm alone! Kurosaki's other friends aren't interested in helping anyone who wants to hurt Kurosaki-kun!!" she shouted, sounding almost vindictive. Komamura knew that they had lost a valuable ally that day. In fact, they had lost several valuable allies. Inoue Orihime was transcendent at fixing wounds. Sado Yasutora was a powerful human, and was only getting more powerful as time went on. The other problem was that Kurosaki Ichigo also had friends in Seireitei, like Renji, and although Komamura didn't think that Renji would betray Soul Society, he had already proven more than once that he had no qualms about going against the law to serve what he believed to be the right thing to do. Another problem was sure to be that Kurosaki Ichigo had allies in Urahara Kisuke, Tsukabishi Tessai, and Shihôin Yoruichi, and Shihôin Yoruichi had an ally in Captain Soi Fon, who would do anything for Yoruichi, including defect the Soul Society to join Yoruichi. All of that could prove to be a major problem.

Komamura made a mental note to himself to mention this to the Commander-General, and he removed his sword from its hilt and formed the passage back into Soul Society. He would report to the Commander that his mission was a failure, but that he had information that could prove why it was good that he had not assassinated Kurosaki Ichigo.

Orihime closed her eyes for a moment and then took a deep breath, walking forward through the force field that blocked the Vizard's hideout from normal vision. She had been there once before to warn Ichigo of Aizen's plan to make the Ôken, or the King's Key. Of course, she hadn't been greeted very warmly by the Vizard. However, she didn't care. She had to see Ichigo and Rukia again, and she would do this whether or not they wanted her to. She slowly pulled open the sliding metal door that led into the warehouse and walked in to see the Vizard sitting around, not really doing anything. She didn't see Ichigo or Rukia. However, she did see a new face that she hadn't seen the last time that she came here. It was Ichimaru Gin, the traitor. He appeared to be talking to someone. She quickly walked over to him, forgetting that the other Vizard were even there and looked over his shoulder.

"_It appears as though you have a visitor, Ichimaru…"_ the voice said, sounding slightly amused. Gin looked over his shoulder, shocked. He hadn't been paying attention to his surroundings, a foolish move if one wanted to survive.

"Oh, it's you… You're the human girl that Aizen kidnapped…" he said somberly, not raising the façade of a smile that he would have done when she first met him in Soul Society, and then still when she met him again in Hueco Mundo.

"Yes. Sorry to startle you. Do you know where Kurosaki-kun is?" she asked politely. Gin shook his head.

"Oh, um, human girl… They're probably down in the underground training room, training…" Mashiro said, giggling to herself. Shinji cursed. Ichigo had asked not to be bothered. He wasn't entirely sure what that meant, but based on experience, when someone asked not to be bothered, bothering them usually led to being slapped or worse. He also knew that Mashiro didn't like Orihime, so that probably meant that Mashiro did know what was going on, and she wanted to cause trouble for Orihime. Now that Mashiro had told Orihime where Ichigo was, though, Shinji knew that he wouldn't be able to stop Orihime from going down, and if he told her his theory on what they were doing, that would just make her want to go down more. She wasn't a vindictive girl, but if what he thought was happening really was happening, then she would be jealous, because her crush on Ichigo was pretty obvious.

Orihime thanked Mashiro and ran down through the trapdoor and into the training room, where she heard sounds coming from. When she got down, though, she turned bright red and squeaked, covering her eyes. Ichigo and Rukia were kissing right in front of her, leaned up against a rock. No clothes had been removed, but it looked like they were really about to. Suddenly, Rukia pulled away from Ichigo and looked up to see Orihime, who looked at them in shock and started running back up the steps. Rukia pushed Ichigo off of her and jumped up onto the stairs, chasing after her. She was easily faster than Orihime, and she had much more endurance, so even if she wasn't faster, she could just chase after Orihime by outlasting her in running. Rukia cut Orihime off at the top of the stairs, grabbed her and took her out of the training room, walking with her to just outside the warehouse. Rukia looked at Orihime sympathetically. Orihime suddenly glared at Rukia and punched her hard in the stomach, jumping back and calling out Tsubaki.

"Koten Zanshun! I reject!!" she cried, sending Tsubaki at Rukia with a ferocity and bloodlust unmatched by any attack she had used before in her life. She had never been quite so angry and wanting of revenge, and it was her sudden hatred of Rukia that drove her to attack her. Rukia gasped. She could use a Kidô, but that would kill Tsubaki. She could try to block it with her sword, but there was no guarantee that it would succeed. Suddenly, though, just as it came within range, Ichigo jumped in between and took the hit for Rukia. He gasped in pain and fell to the ground, unable to stand anymore. He had blocked Tsubaki with his back, and his spinal cord was broken. Ichigo cursed, though he was glad that he was minimally injured. Hachigen could probably heal him up pretty quickly. He looked at Orihime. His legs were paralyzed, but everything from the arms up still worked, so he propped himself up on his elbows and glared at the auburn haired girl. Orihime wasn't usually like that. That was why it confused him as to why she would just attack Rukia out of nowhere.

"Inoue… What do you think you were doing!?" Ichigo asked harshly, looking at Orihime's horrified face. She wasn't upset enough. She needed to pay for attacking Rukia. Even if Orihime was his friend, he wouldn't put up with her trying to hurt someone else out of anger, or revenge, or whatever she was feeling at the moment. She couldn't believe that Ichigo had been willing to take that hit for Rukia… No… Actually, she could believe it. In fact, it was quite believable. Ichigo had been in love with Rukia for a long time. Orihime just didn't want to have to see it, so she blocked it out of her vision, and seeing them kissing drove her crazy with jealousy. She couldn't believe what a horrible person she was being. She and Rukia were supposed to be friends, and instead, Orihime could only be jealous of her. She found herself hating her own guts more and more by the second. She didn't deserve to be loved by Ichigo. Instead of being happy for Ichigo that he was finally with the person that he loved, she got angry at Rukia and tried to kill her. What kind of way was that for a friend to act?

Suddenly, Orihime's vision went blank. It was like there was a fog in her eyes that was blocking her vision, and she was having a hard time seeing through it. Her mind was beginning to go numb as well. There was only one option left. She had to die. She could make Tsubaki attack her. Why shouldn't she be able to attack herself? As Aizen himself had said, her powers violated the realm of God, and that meant that she could do anything if she set her mind to it.

_Kill…_ she thought to herself malevolently, drawing the power from within her to fuel the attack.

_Kill_… Her eyes began to glaze over. Though she wasn't yet dead, she was going to be, and the world would be a better place for it.

_KILL!!!!_

"Koten Zanshun! Tsubaki!! I REJECT!!" Orihime cried, watching as the small fairy flew toward her, signaling her end. She closed her eyes, preparing for death, praying that she could be forgiven in the afterlife, but death never came. She heard a crash and a gasp of pain, but it wasn't her own. Rukia had stopped the attack with her bare arm, causing shockwaves to go up and down the length of her arm, shattering all the bones in her arm, her shoulder and her hand. Orihime opened her eyes to see Rukia, her left arm bleeding profusely and hanging limply at her side. She looked around at Orihime and smiled sadly.

"I'm… sorry, Orihime…" Rukia said, tears glistening in her eyes. Slowly lifting her one arm, she hugged Orihime tightly.

"I-I'm so sorry. I never even thought of you. I guess… I'm not a very good friend, am I?" she asked. The pain that she was feeling at the moment was unbearable, but she put that aside for the moment and simply held Orihime in her one arm.

"N-no, Kuchiki-san… It was I who was wrong… I should never have been so jealous of you. I'm happy that you and Kurosaki-kun are a couple… r-really…" Orihime said, silently fixing Rukia's left arm for her. She then immediately moved on to healing Ichigo. Though she knew that his injury was far more serious, Rukia was in more pain because of the nature of her injury. Finally, Ichigo stood up and smiled, walking back into the warehouse. He wasn't really needed at the moment, and he wasn't too upset about that. Truth be told, he was glad that they were able to work through things on their own. He was never much of a peacemaker. It always ended up that he was better at getting into fights than at getting out of fights. Maybe it was because of his orange hair and that he was always picked on because of it. Back when he was in school, the upperclassmen always wanted a piece of him because of his hair color. Everybody thought it was bleached, even though it was obvious that it was his natural hair color.

"With this, the Espada will be almost complete…" Aizen said softly, touching his fingers to the Vastorode that was kneeling under the cloth. Unfortunately, something happened then that Aizen wasn't expecting. There was a massive explosion of reishi in the area and half the room was obliterated, also taking out the last of the Adjucas Espada, which really only consisted of Stark and Barragan. Now, the Espada was made up entirely of Vastorode class Arrancar, which was a major problem for Soul Society, considering that each Vastorode before becoming an Arrancar was more powerful than a typical captain. After becoming an Arrancar, they could each probably take on two captains at once with no trouble.

Most of the Espada were easily able to guard themselves from the explosion, suffering only a scratch or two. This Vastorode was obviously extremely powerful, which meant that he was probably going to become the new Primera Espada. Klurichir looked on angrily, his crimson red eyes narrowed to mere slits. His sword drawn, he waited patiently for the new Arrancar to stand up before he attacked. Slowly, the new Arrancar stood and removed the cloth from over his… her…? head. It was a woman. Amazing. She was a woman of about that Rukia Kuchiki's height and complexion, but she had sleek, shiny shocking neon green hair that went down below her shoulders in a point in back and then tapered up and formed something of a veil over her right eye and then curved down around her back again. Her eyes were a deep hue of indigo and the remainder of her hollow mask was in the form of thick rimmed glasses that she was wearing. Her nails were painted black and on her right arm she had a tattoo of a dragon snaking down it. In keeping with her look, her Zanpakutô was a pair of trench knives that hung at her waist from a broad, loose fitting belt.

"Do tell us you your name, new sister of ours…" Aizen said warmly, handing her a pile of clothes for her to put on.

"Ililie…" she said curtly, glaring coldly at the other Espada around her, several of whom were staring lecherously at her nude form. Perhaps it was partially her fault for not requesting clothes immediately. She couldn't help but wonder how such idiots ever became Espada, or if becoming an Espada was based on power alone.

"Gesundheit!" she heard a male voice say in the background. Someone was making fun of her name again. This person would have to pay for that. She glared angrily directly at the person and put her clothes on the floor next to her, using Sonido to move right in front of the person. It was Klurichir. Frankly, she wasn't surprised. In general, she hated men. They were simpleminded, lecherous, greedy, dirty pigs. She instantly did a spearhand right through the Espada's chest and used a Cero to obliterate his entire body and then wordlessly used Sonido to go back to her original spot and she got dressed in a long white skirt that went down to her ankles and a tight fitting shirt along with a sleeveless trench coat and biker gloves to match. With that, she looked back up at Aizen, who merely smiled and snapped his fingers, making a "1" instantly tattoo itself on her left ankle.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

"Val-en-tine's Day?" Rukia asked, confounded by the strange name given to an even stranger sounding holiday. What did it mean? Valentine? It wasn't a Japanese word. It couldn't have been. Or at least, she had never heard it used before. That seemed to indicated to her that it wasn't a Japanese word. She didn't really know every Japanese word, but she knew the basic holidays. Valentine's Day wasn't one of them.

Orihime nodded brightly and started to explain Valentine's Day in great detail and how a girl was supposed to get a gift for the boy that she liked. It had been almost a year since she and Ichigo had started going out. So, whatever this Valentine's Day was, maybe it was meant to prove that you love the person. But for mortals, was proving one's love as easy as buying some cheap chocolates and giving them to the other person. It rather seemed to Rukia like it all just cheapened a relationship, that it could be gauged by whether the girl bought a crummy piece of candy for the boy. To Rukia, it seemed kind of dumb, but if that was the mortal custom, who was she to argue with it. She smiled and nodded, thinking about what she could get Ichigo that would mean more than just a piece of crap candy, which Ichigo probably wouldn't eat, anyhow. Maybe she could take him to a restaurant that served uber spicy foods. No. She couldn't ever eat spicy foods. They made her sick. But all restaurants had some kind of normal food. The problem was that Valentine's day was coming up really soon, and the stores would be running out of stuff to buy.

What had she gotten him for Christmas? Oh, right. She had gotten him those wristbands that eat spiritual energy like the eye patch that Zaraki had. Since he started wearing them, his power had increased exponentially. Rukia was starting to wonder if he would ever stop increasing in power. It wasn't like she really minded that he was so powerful. In fact, it was even a good thing. She had ended up getting one of the wristbands for herself as well, though it wasn't as effective on her, since she wasn't nearly as powerful as Ichigo was. That just meant that she had to work harder, though at her training. That was certainly something that she could get him. She could get him a new gigai. Those were expensive, though, and she didn't have much money because she didn't have a job. Maybe she could get a job working as a waitress or something. She had heard that waitresses make good money, especially around that time of year and around Christmas. She had never had a job before, other than being a Shinigami, but it didn't seem like a problem.

"So, Miss… Kuchiki… This is your first day on the job, so I'm going to put you with Sakura-san and you can just learn from her today," Rukia's manager said politely. He was a very formal man, nothing like Ichigo, even though he was only about three years older. That was why she liked the human world. Nobody knew that she was nobility, so nobody felt they had to be overly respectful toward her. Miss Kuchiki wasn't something that she was usually called. Lady Rukia was about the least formal greeting she usually got, except from her family and from people like Renji and her former captain, Ukitake, both of whom treated her as someone in their position would. Renji treated her as a friend, and Ukitake treated her as a subordinate, though he still treated her politely, and rarely ordered any of his subordinates around.

Rukia smiled politely at Sakura, who gave her a small smile back, though it didn't reach her eyes. Rukia could tell that the girl held some contempt for her, but she was the senior server, so Rukia was in no position to question it. Along with not being nobility anymore came the fact that not everyone was nice to you. It wasn't that Rukia minded. She just wished she knew why Sakura would so instantly dislike her.

"Listen, bitch!" Sakura hissed angrily. "You may be very pretty, and all, but you better not get in my way!!"

Rukia just smiled and nodded, muttering a polite "of course not." Sakura reminded her of Soi Fon; arrogant, prideful, and temperamental. She followed behind Sakura by three steps, making sure not to get too close, lest she trip her senior. Rukia was extremely graceful, and being a Shinigami gave her some extra ability in that area.

Sakura picked up two trays, holding one in each hand and striding into the other section of the restaurant, holding her nose up as though she was better than everyone else. Rukia could see right through her. Unfortunately, she could also see another server about to crash right into Sakura, which would likely incur the girl's wrath. That wouldn't be a good thing. Rukia tried to quietly tell her, but all she got was a "shut up, new girl!" and then… CRASH!!

Four trays of food flew up into the air. Rukia jumped over Sakura's head, forgetting that she wasn't with her Shinigami friends anymore and landed perfectly on one foot, catching one tray on the sole of her shoe, another in her right hand, the third in her left hand and the last one on her back. Sakura and the other waitress who had just collided looked up at Rukia from the floor in shock at the feat that she had just performed. She was no ordinary girl, and Sakura was going to find out more about her. She sneered and then glared at the other waitress, who blushed and looked away, looking like she was about to cry. Rukia put down the four trays, forgetting about the rest of the customers that were all still staring at her and crouched down in front of the other girl. She looked young to be a waitress. She could only possibly be fourteen.

"Are you alright?" Rukia asked sweetly, putting a hand on the girl's shoulder. Sakura had something to say about this, too.

"Don't bother worrying about her! Her daddy will just kiss her boo boos and make them all better… won't he, Rika!?" she snapped, glaring venomously at the young girl.

"I-I… I mean… M-my father doesn't favor me…" she said shyly, looking down at the ground, mashing her forefingers together.

"Oh yeah!? Then how do you explain your not being fired yet!? Unless being an above average klutz is an asset now!?" Sakura hissed, making sure that nobody heard her. By now, they had moved to a more discreet location. Nonetheless, Rukia couldn't just let her beat up on Rika like that. Besides, it was Sakura who wasn't looking where she was going.

"Hey! Sakura, how dare you talk to her like that!? Anyone can make a mistake!" Rukia snapped, grabbing Sakura's wrist and pulling her over in a vise grip. Sakura looked down at Rukia's hand and smirked.

"Take your hand off me, new girl. This is none of your business, and if you saw the klutz coming, why didn't you warn me!?"

"I tried, but you told me to shut up. So, given that, I think this little accident is really _your_ fault, isn't it, _Miss Klutz_?!" Rukia said with a smile of cold satisfaction at the look on Sakura's face.

"Come on, hurry up, new girl! The people's food is getting cold! Klutz, watch out! You're lucky I don't have time for this!"

Rika nodded timidly and tried to smile at Rukia, but couldn't muster up enough willpower to do it. Rukia smiled at her as she walked away, still feeling bad.

"Since you're so damn nimble, you can carry the trays that Rika would've been carrying. They're going over to that table right there. Don't mess this up like she did!"

Rukia nodded and grabbed the two trays that she saw Rika carrying and walked over to the far table, smiling politely at the people at the table.

"Hi. Sorry about the wait. Now, who ordered this?" she asked, picking up the first plate. A child raised his hand, still looking at Rukia in awe. His mother looked down at him and frowned.

"Suguru! Don't stare! It's impolite!" she said, and he nodded.

"How did you jump like that, lady? Are you an astronaut?" he asked in wonder. Rukia smiled nervously.

_Damn! What is an astronaut!? Is it anything like a juggernaut!?_

"Suguru… I'm sorry. He saw a show where some people were able to jump like that on the moon, so now I guess he thinks that you must be one, too…"

"Oh, that's alright. I'm just a normal human girl…" Rukia lied. Smiling the whole time. She noticed that Sakura was getting a little bit impatient, so she put the rest of the plates on the table and hurried over to her, smiling in apology. Rukia noticed that she seemed to be doing a lot of smiling, though that was what her manager had told her to do beforehand, so she guessed that she was doing the right thing.

"Could you have gone any slower!? God! What were you talking to them about!?"

"The boy thought I was an Astronaut… because of the jump I did back there."

Finally, Rukia's day was over. It was close to midnight, and she was tired. She didn't have work the next day, which was fortunate, because she wasn't sure if she could do it. She really wondered how some people got up and did this kind of thing every day. As she was about to walk out, her manager stopped her and said, "So, Miss Kuchiki… Do you have a ride home?"

"No, I can walk. It isn't that far from here," she said with a grin. He looked at her, his smile dropping for a moment.

"You might want to be careful. There are some pretty shady people out there this time of night. Are you sure you don't want a ride?"

"Yes. I'll be fine, sir… Thank you for your concern, though…" Rukia said politely. Almost as if on cue, then, Ichigo walked into the parking lot. He walked over to Rukia and waved as he got closer, looking at the name of the restaurant. In all of the years that he had been in Karakura, he had never come to this place. It didn't seem much like his type of food, but if Rukia was working there, then it had to be an okay place. Ichigo smiled at the manager and put out his hand.

"This is my boyfriend, Ichigo…" Rukia said cheerfully, actually glad that Ichigo was there. Despite being a Vizard, she wasn't too fond of the idea of walking back to the warehouse alone. Her manager was right. There were all kinds of creeps out.

Secretly, Sakura watched Rukia and Ichigo walk away into the night. She kept thinking irately that Rukia could have done much better than that Ichigo guy. What she couldn't figure out, though, was why she would waste her time on such a punk. She could tell he was a punk just from the way he looked. He was wearing tight fitting jeans and a slim fit tee shirt that was probably too small for him, though she couldn't tell from that distance, and he wore a long black trench coat that went down to his ankles, and his hair was bleached. The worst part was, Sakura had to admit that Ichigo was kind of cute for a punk. Maybe she could cause some trouble for Rukia if she stole Ichigo from her. That would be hilarious. Maybe she could even make Rukia cry. Man, that would be awesome. Rukia seemed like such a solid person that to see her cry would be the best. Sakura figured that Rukia was probably going to try to take Ichigo out on Valentine's Day. That would be the perfect time to crush her for good. She watched as the two walked out of the parking lot and got smaller as they faded into the distance.

Valentine's Day was only a day away, and Rukia had just gotten her first paycheck. Of course, since she had started working alone, she had proven to be an extremely popular server at the restaurant, so she made quite a bit of money in tips, but it was gratifying to receive her first paycheck ever. Sakura silently watched with great contempt for Rukia. In less than three weeks, Rukia had already become more popular than Sakura was, and that made Sakura angry. She couldn't believe that a newbie to the world of work like Rukia was picking up on everything so fast. Rukia never tripped, no matter how much she was told to carry. She could carry three fully loaded trays at once. One on her head and one on each hand, and she made it look so easy that Sakura tried it once and ended up spilling food all over the place and humiliating herself. And the worst part about that was that Rukia rushed over to help her clean it up. It was almost like Rukia had no idea how much Sakura hated her. She had almost completely stopped picking on Rika and had focused her wrath on Rukia.

In fact, Rukia more than just noticed. It was obvious to her, but she didn't care. She knew that she had nothing to worry about. Unless Sakura could do something to inexplicably get her fired, there was really nothing to fear from her. She was all bark and no bite, as the humans would say. Rukia sighed and tried to look at the positives. She had heard that getting a job in the first place was difficult, so she was lucky to have one at all, even though she only looked like she was maybe sixteen. Another good thing was that even though she had to work with Sakura, there was also Rika and her manager, both of whom were very nice people. She still hadn't told Ichigo why she was getting a job, though, and she was sure that he was beginning to get suspicious. She knew that he would never suspect her of doing anything wrong, but it was quite noticeable that she was always at the restaurant in a uniform.

Well, whatever. She still had to focus on working. The restaurant had gotten extremely popular lately with people who always seemed to request her as their server. She had become uber popular, and it was beginning to get really difficult to get anything done before being called off again. She wasn't exactly sure what she was supposed to do, but she had to figure something out. She was beginning to go crazy. It was hard having to be polite to all the people who were making rude jokes and hitting on her. It made her feel a little bit awkward. She hadn't been informed of that part of the job when she was hired. She felt a little bit maltreated. She groaned, though, and walked back to the person that she was serving.

"Would you like any desert?" she asked brightly, smiling politely to the man, who just smirked and said, "Yeah… Could I maybe get a piecea that ass, baby?!" Rukia was going to ignore it, but then he did something inexcusable. He reached out and grabbed her left breast. Rukia squeaked in embarrassment. Sakura looked over at Rukia, noting her problem. She could see the man groping her. At first she noted this with satisfaction. It was kind of funny to see Rukia in a situation that she couldn't handle for once. But then Sakura remembered the first time a man had ever groped her on the job. It was horrible. She was so humiliated when that happened. As a waitress, she was supposed to be polite, but as a woman, she couldn't just stand there and let someone treat her that way. She drooped her head and strode over to Rukia, who was frozen to the spot she was standing. The man had let go, but she still couldn't move.

"Hey, what's up, girl!?" the man asked cockily. "Don't tell me you didn't enjoy my _magic touch_, baby…" he finished, laughing. He reached up to touch Rukia again, but Sakura grabbed his wrist before he could do anything.

"Excuse me _sir_! How many drinks have you had tonight!?" She asked angrily.

"Wha!? I only had seven or eight glasses of Saké! I ain't drunk!" he shouted, swaying a little bit in his seat.

"Sir, I think you've had enough to drink. Please pay your bill, go home, and get some rest…" Sakura said sternly. The man glared at her, but accepted the bill and dropped some money on the table and staggered out of the restaurant. Sakura quickly pulled Rukia out into the coat room and sat down with her. Immediately after they sat down, Rukia burst into tears. She was so upset. Nobody had ever been quite so abusive to her. She didn't realize that humans could be so unpleasant. Back in Soul Society, even when people got drunk, they treated her with basic respect. The only male humans that she had ever had extensive contact with were Ichigo, Uryû, and Chad, and they were all extremely respectful people. She knew quite well that Ichigo would never even think of touching her like that man did.

"It's alright, now, Kuchiki…" Sakura said, feeling a strange sensation inside. It was something that she rarely felt, but if she had to put a label on it, she would probably call it… pity?

_No. Pity isn't right. Pity is like feeling sorry for someone. Maybe the term is empathy. It feels kind of weird, like there's something nagging at my mind… and my heart. Is that guilt?_

"W-why are you being s-s-so ni… nice to me? I-I thought that you hated me…" Rukia asked, trying to stop crying. She was sure that she looked like a total idiot in front of Sakura.

"Because you didn't deserve that… and… you didn't deserve to be treated badly by me, either. Kuchiki, y'see, at a restaurant, it's actually the job of whoever is serving the customer to cut them off when they seem to be getting drunk. Why don't you go home for the night? It's almost the end of your shift, anyhow."

Rukia nodded and stood, punching out at the door and walking out of the restaurant. As soon as she got down the steps, though, she was grabbed from behind and dragged kicking and screaming into an alley next to the restaurant.

"Hey, bitch! We didn't get to finish our little talk, so we're gonna finish it now, huh?!" the drunk man said angrily, pushing his body roughly up against Rukia's. He pushed hard on a spot right above her shoulder and just below the nape of her neck, causing her right arm to go numb. He did the same with her left arm and then kissed her roughly, forcing his tongue into her mouth. Sakura had been right. He smelled strongly of alcohol, but Rukia never thought that he would be any threat to her. She was obviously wrong. The man thrust his crotch against hers violently, his bloodshot eyes glaring into her bright blue ones. He reveled in the primal fear that shone in her eyes, causing her to tremble. He ripped her uniform shirt off, revealing her bra underneath. He then yanked down her skirt and panties. She could feel his hardened penis against her body. It was so disgusting. She had dreamed of Ichigo being her first time, but that obviously wouldn't come to pass. He pulled his pants down and began to slowly push his way into her, causing her to tighten up in pain. He pushed all the way in, then, breaking her barrier, causing her to scream in pain. He laughed at her agony as he began to thrust in and out of her violently, causing white hot pain to sear through her legs with every thrust. He slammed her up against the brick wall with every thrust bruising her back and banging her head a few times. She suddenly felt so weak… so helpless… so pathetic. Was this really the extent of her strength? She tried in vain to push the man off of her, but he thrust into her one more time, gritting his teeth as he came in her, smirking as he did. She moaned in pain as he then pulled out and shoved her face first against the wall again and began to rape her from behind, repeating the process all over again. He raped her a few more times on both sides and then let her slide down to the wet, cold pavement, covered in blood, cum, and sweat. He pulled up his pants and then took out a few hundred thousand Yen and tossed it on her limp form. She couldn't believe it. He was paying her now, like she was a common prostitute. Was that all that she was worth? Could her value really be measured with something so simple as mortal money? Rukia found her hating herself for everything that she was, or perhaps for everything that she wasn't.

Then, she heard a voice. It was Ichigo. She didn't want him to see her like that, so she vainly tried to crawl behind some trash cans to hide from him. She couldn't let him see her like that, weak, disgusting, unclean. She didn't deserve his concern or his love. She wasn't worth anything more than being a little whore. Ichigo quickly found her, though, and ran over, grabbing her and looking intensely into her eyes. Of course, he noticed right away that she was naked and covered with blood and something sticky. He wasn't stupid, and he quickly put the pieces together. He pulled her into a tight embrace.

"Rukia-chan… A-are you alright? Stupid question. Of course you aren't alright. Here, put on your clothes, and I'll take you back to the warehouse. We can ask Hachigen to heal you," he said quietly, turning around so that she could get dressed. She quickly put her torn clothes back on and Ichigo picked her up and started to run back as fast as he could to the warehouse.

_I wonder if anyone back at the warehouse is even awake. Maybe I can take her to dad's clinic. No. I can't wake them up. Maybe Karakura General. Ishida's father owns that hospital. He'll understand… maybe. I wonder if he's as much of a jerk as Uryû is. If he is, maybe he won't even let us in. But he has to. He's a doctor! I don't have a lot of money, but maybe he'll understand. No. That guy is a jerk! I'll go to Urahara. He doesn't mind being up late._

Ichigo's thoughts raced as he ran along the nighttime streets of Karakura toward Urahara Shôten. He turned a corner sharply, almost slamming into a homeless man, who just barely managed to get out of the way in time. He cursed loudly at Ichigo as Ichigo ignored him and continued running. Such small things as running over hobos didn't matter to him when Rukia was hurt. He could see the shop beginning to come into focus in front of him. It was only another three blocks away. He continued to run straight for the shop, seeing a man and leaping for all he was worth, jumping clear over him and landing perfectly with Rukia still on his back and continuing his run. The man looked at him in shock, tears still filling his eyes, having been expecting to be sent flying up against a wall. If Ichigo ever caught who did this to Rukia, he wasn't making any guarantees that he wouldn't kill him. He might not need to, though. Ichigo was fondly hoping that the man would die of an STD or some shit like that. He ran the last few meters to Urahara Shôten and started banging on the door.

Inside, Kisuke yawned and looked up from the television that he was watching. He was watching his favorite show, too, Chappy the Rabbit. He loved the little bunny rabbit and all of his adventures. He had just gotten the DVD from Soul Society and he wanted to watch all of the episodes on the disk at once. He paused the show, though, and stood, walking up to the door, irritated at Ichigo's banging. He was going to break the door. Kisuke was sure that the door was already cracked in more places than one. Before Kisuke could get to the door, though, Tessai moved between them. He was in a bathrobe and had a nightcap on his head. He overall looked rather funny, but Ichigo didn't have time for funny.

"Yes?" Tessai asked belligerently, yawning a wide yawn. Kisuke pushed him gently aside, though, and smiled.

"What a surprise, Mr. Kurosaki, Miss Kuchiki. Do come in. Oh, is Miss Kuchiki alright?"

"No she isn't alright!!" Ichigo snapped, as though it were obvious. He adjusted his tone, though, fairly quickly. He needed Kisuke's help.

"No. She was raped down where she works." Ichigo said nervously. Rukia groaned. She was obviously in a lot of pain.

"Oh, I-I see," Kisuke said quietly, leading Ichigo in. Ichigo quickly walked in and put Rukia down on a mat that Kisuke pulled out for her.

"Tessai. Call Miss Inoue. I know it's late, but we need her specific abilities." Kisuke said politely. He hated to bother Orihime at such a late hour, but it was vital to have her. She could return Rukia's body to the way it was before the rape happened.

"Ah, yes… Miss Inoue… This is Tsukabishi Tessai, from Urahara Shôten…" Tessai said respectfully, hoping that Orihime knew his name well enough.

"O-oh… U-um… alright. W-what do you need?" she asked nervously. Tessai sighed with relief.

"Miss Kuchiki and Mr. Kurosaki are down here and we need you to come down as quickly as you can."

"Of course! I'll be right there!" she said determinedly. She didn't want to wake up Tatsuki, who was sleeping over at the moment. She put on her clothes in the dark and took a can of mace that Tatsuki had given to her as a present for her birthday and made her promise always to carry it with her. Orihime didn't understand this, but she acquiesced because she trusted Tatsuki. She then put her shoes on and ran out of the apartment.

"MR. URAHARA!! MR. URAHARA!!" Orihime cried, running into the shop. Kisuke looked over at her and brought a finger up to his lips, shushing her.

"Miss Kuchiki is sleeping…" he whispered. Orihime nodded and knelt down next to Rukia, looking her over.

"W-what happened to her? She looks… terrible!" Orihime said, aghast. Ichigo looked at her sternly.

"She was raped. She was working the late shift at a restaurant and when she left, she was pulled into an alley and raped… That's all that I really know. All I need to know."

Orihime nodded, knowing what she was expected to do. She focused her reiatsu and surrounded Rukia with her Soten Kisshun, reversing all of the damage done to her gigai and to her Konpaku. It wasn't a long process, but when she was done, Rukia woke up and smiled gently at her, hugging her tightly. She felt so small and so vulnerable. She needed someone to hold her. It wasn't that she was afraid to hug Ichigo. She was just so ashamed. Ichigo had already done so much for her. He didn't mind touching her, even though she was so filthy. She could still picture that man throwing money on her like she was just a simple prostitute. It had been the most horrible feeling ever. She wasn't sure how she was supposed to handle it. Orihime hugged her snugly, though, rubbing her back gently, whispering in her ear that it was going to be alright. Orihime knew that Rukia was strong, and that she would work her way through this like she worked her way through everything else that came her way. She had managed even to come to terms with being unfairly executed that one time. Orihime was sure that Rukia could get through this.

Suddenly, though, Ichigo felt an insanely powerful reiatsu in the human world. He didn't have his representative Shinigami pass, though, like he usually did. He couldn't believe that he would leave it behind.

"Hey, Kurosaki… Do you need some help, maybe?" Urahara asked, despite the fact that it was so obvious. Ichigo nodded. Rukia started to stand up to go fight as well, but Ichigo pushed her back down.

"Listen, Rukia-chan. Just stay here and get some rest."

"No, Ichigo. I have to go. It'll help me feel better."

"Fine. Have it your way." Ichigo said as both were expelled from their bodies almost simultaneously by Kisuke's cane. Orihime knew that she would only be in the way, so she stayed behind. She knew that she wasn't much of a fighter, but that she was good at healing. So, she stayed with Kisuke and wished Ichigo and Rukia well as they sprang into action


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

Ichigo had never felt this particular Reiatsu before. It was way more powerful even than Klurichir's. Ichigo wasn't sure if he could beat whoever it was. Well, he couldn't do it alone. Fortunately, he wasn't alone. He had Rukia with him, who was becoming quite powerful. Perhaps together, they could defeat this new threat. It was definitely Espada level, and Ichigo could tell that it was a Vastorode before it was turned into an Arrancar. Ichigo flew through the city toward the alien spiritual pressure, geared up for combat. He would probably have to use every ability at his disposal in order to dispatch this guy, if he could do it at all. He was still only about half as powerful as Aizen was, and that was when Aizen was without his mask. Ichigo had never seen Aizen with his mask on, so that meant that when he did have it on, there was no telling what might happen.

When the two Vizard reached the new Arrancar, they saw a tall punk-like girl with about Rukia's height and complexion, but she had sleek, shiny shocking neon green hair that went down below her shoulders in a point in back and then tapered up and formed something of a veil over her right eye and then curved down around her back again. Her eyes were a deep hue of indigo and the remainder of her hollow mask was in the form of thick rimmed glasses that she was wearing. Her nails were painted black and on her right arm she had a tattoo of a dragon snaking down it. In keeping with her look, her Zanpakutô was a pair of trench knives that hung at her waist from a broad, loose fitting belt. She wore a long white trench coat with only one sleeve on it and a tank top under it. Her pants were more like a long skirt and she had boots that went up to her knees almost underneath her skirt. She looked at Ichigo with a smirk.

"Hey! I heard of you!! Yer that punk that abandoned Lord Aizen, and you're the punk's bitch!" She shouted to Ichigo and Rukia. Ichigo cursed. She was even more arrogant and loudmouthed than Grimmjow was. But what was worse was that she was more than ten times as powerful as Grimmjow was as well.

"Well, apparently you know us. I've never met you, though. Do tell us your name." Ichigo said with a smirk. The Arrancar scowled and snorted at them.

"I don't give my name away freely to dead people!" she sneered. Ichigo shrugged and released his Bankai, putting on his Hollow mask at the same time. Rukia took out her Zanpakutô as well, then, and put on her Hollow mask, releasing her Bankai.

"BANKAI!! Sode no Shirayuki Fubuki." She cried, as an ice cold reiatsu exploded all around them, covering almost a one mile area in a coat of snow and ice. Of course, the snow and the ice would be invisible to anyone who didn't have enough spiritual energy to also see Shinigami, but the point of it being there was that anywhere that was covered in her magical snow, she could teleport through and use her usual snow/ice attacks in with greater ease and power. Overall, she had an extremely powerful Bankai. Teleportation was not an ability that most Shinigami had. Of course, Rukia was still fairly green with her Bankai, so she still had to be careful in using it.

"Hn… You two've gotten a little bit more powerful than you were when you served Aizen-sama, eh? This fight might just be some fun for me. I'll have you know, though, despite my apparently silky smooth, ivory skin, I have the strongest Hierro of all the Arrancar. I'm not sure you can even touch me."

"You talk a lot, don't you? Why are you here, anyhow?" Rukia asked coldly. The Arrancar shrugged and said, "Who can say what Aizen-sama's plans for me are?" she asked with a snicker just before she threw her Zanpakutô up in the air and held out her hands, letting them fall over her fingers. She then cracked her knuckles and attacked, causing a huge explosion behind Ichigo and Rukia, who just barely managed to get out of the way in time. The explosion was caused just by the wind pressure alone from her Sonido. Ichigo couldn't believe how fast she was. He hadn't been at all prepared for this, and she could already tell that she had the upper hand. Ichigo raised his sword above his head, though, and used the trick that he had used on Grimmjow. He used the Kuro Getsuga Tenshô, and then used Shunpô to get behind her and immediately do another Kuro Getsuga Tenshô. When the smoke cleared, though, the Espada showed that she hadn't been injured in the slightest by his attack. Ichigo cursed and used Shunpô to dodge her next attack just in time to avoid being skewered by her trench knives. Rukia used this chance to make her attack.

"Some no Mai: Tsukishiro!" Rukia shouted, causing a huge magic circle to appear above and below Ichigo and the Arrancar. Ichigo jumped out of the way, throwing the Arrancar back into the range of the attack just as it froze, freezing her in place. Rukia smirked, but knew it not to have been any use at all when she saw the Espada break out with ease and slash the air around her, sending an air wave at Rukia. Ichigo did a quick, unincanted Kidô to try to block the attack, but it did very little to actually stop it. The Espada smirked.

"Well, you're proving stronger than I thought. I guess I will tell you my name after all. Ililie. I'm the Sixth Espada, and you are dead."

"You talk too much. But thanks for telling me your name. Bakudô #99! Kin!!" Ichigo shouted, using the high level Kidô on Ililie, sealing her in place. Ichigo then shot forward and stood in the air before her, preparing to do two Kidôs at once. It was going to be hard.

"Inquisition/Sinners run rampant. Clouds of blood/Darkness holds them just by their throats. 40 years of darkness in the starry black sky/honor the vow to purge not with water, but with fire for a new start. Form thy sword and mold thy shield and take up arms against thine enemy! Hadô #90/Hadô #95! Kuro Hitsugi/Dawn of Megido!" Ichigo shouted, watching as a huge black box encased Ililie and skewered her mercilessly just before a storm of violet flame came down and fried her ass. She screamed in agony and rage as the dual Kidô took its toll on her. Aizen had never told her that Ichigo could do Eternal Destruction Hadô. It wasn't fair. Finally, the binding spell wore off, though, and Ililie looked hatefully at Ichigo. She suddenly muttered something incoherent and a blast of light exploded around her. When the light and dust cleared, there stood in her place a lithe female with armor going down her back and shoulders and on her front as well, leading to what looked like two bone white blades on her two center knuckles on either hand. She did a whirlwind and disappeared in a soft howl and then reappeared right in front of Rukia and slashed at her violently, giving Rukia a deep gash across her chest and abdomen. Rukia gasped in agony and began a fast descent down to the earth below. Ichigo shouted out her name and used Shunpô to catch her, but was too slow. Ililie flashed over to Rukia and began to stab her again and again all over her body until her chest and abdomen were little more than a bloody pulp. Rukia looked weakly at Ichigo and smiled. Ichigo looked down into Rukia's eyes, seeing that she was quickly dying. Rukia struggled to sit up and kissed Ichigo on the lips, embracing him one last time before she fell limp, her eyes glazed over with death. Ichigo couldn't believe it. Rukia was dead. Ililie couldn't have just been satisfied with wounding her.

"You had to kill her, didn't you? I'll never forgive you for this you… monster. I'LL KILL YOU!!!" Ichigo shouted. Just as he did this, an intense blast of ice cold spiritual pressure exploded around him, as though he was renewing his own power and then some. In that one moment, he almost doubled his power. He wasn't sure how long it would last, though, so he instantly moved faster than Ililie could even blink and did a Kuro Getsuga Tenshô at her with more power than he had ever done before. Ililie cursed, trying desperately to dodge his barrage of Getsuga Tenshô, but failing most of the time. Finally, she looked up at the sky and saw that a beam of yellow light was coming down from Hueco Mundo. That meant that it was time to go.

"That was fun, Shinigami. We'll have to do it again sometime, eh?" she asked as she disappeared into the eternal night of Hueco Mundo.

Just as Ichigo went back to Rukia's side, Orihime showed up along with Kisuke, Yoruichi and Tessai.

"Orihime!! Can you help Rukia-chan!?" Ichigo asked, shaking Orihime back and forth. Orihime stood back a little bit and nodded. From what Aizen had said about her powers, she could reject any event predestined by God. That meant that she could in theory bring Rukia back from the dead. She was pretty badly injured, too, though, so that would mean that she would have to repair a lot of damage to her body. Orihime wasn't sure how much damage she could actually repair before her own reishi was drained. She wished that she had Hachigen around. He had pretty much the same abilities that she had. Of course, they weren't his natural abilities. Unlike Orihime, he had to develop the ability to event reject. She remembered the time that he had repaired Tsubaki. He didn't have to, but he was a nice guy, and she was sure that he would help her if she asked. She couldn't always rely on other people to help her, though. She needed to either succeed, or die trying. Once she actually brought Rukia back to life, she imagined that Tessai could finish healing her.

Orihime knelt over Rukia and activated her powers, feeling the drain on her mind and her body almost immediately. She knew that bringing back a dead person was no small task, and Rukia was badly injured. Almost all of her organs were punctured, or torn to shreds. Before she could bring Rukia back to life, she would have to repair the organ damage. That wouldn't be as much work as actually rejecting death itself, but it wouldn't be easy. That was for sure. She focused harder and repaired her heart first. Then, she repaired her lungs. Since those two organs were the two most important, they were also the hardest to fix. She then moved onto the stomach and the intestines, fixing the extremely long tube that was her digestive tract.

Finally, when all of her organs were back intact, she sighed, releasing her powers and taking a deep breath. Once again, she focused and began to use her Soten Kisshun. This time, she was truly going to reject death's hold on Rukia. She kept in mind that she was doing this for Ichigo. She loved Ichigo, and she was willing to do anything that it took to make him happy, even if that meant that she had to die. She didn't want to die, but if it served the cause, then her life was well spent. The only thing she really regretted was never having had the chance to get her first kiss. She had wanted it to be with Ichigo. She knew that not to be a possibility, though, and she was content with that. She had made her peace with losing Ichigo.

The only problem was that Orihime was feeling a little bit queasy. She wasn't sure how much longer she could go on reviving Rukia. She had to, though.

_We can help you, Orihime…_

_W-what? How?_

_Lend us your soul, and we will make full use of its power. I must warn you, though… there's a chance that you'll die._

_O-oh… I-I still want to do it! How sure are you that you can save Kuchiki-san!?_

_Absolutely positive._

_Good. I, Inoue Orihime… lend my soul to you!_

_There ya go!!_

Suddenly, Orihime felt a powerful spike in her energy. It was almost as if an energy not quite her own, but not quite someone else's was inhabiting her soul, giving her the power to save Rukia's life on her own. She never knew before that this was how Ichigo felt when he shared his soul with Zangetsu. It was a powerful feeling, and it felt good in a way. It was a warm, tingling sensation that ran down her entire body, energizing it in a way she never before knew possible.

With relative ease, she brought life back into Rukia's formerly dead body and watched as Rukia sat up weakly. Orihime pushed Rukia down, though.

"Don't get up. You're probably still weak from your battle," Orihime said kindly, hugging Rukia snugly, holding her close. Rukia smiled and hugged Orihime back.

"You saved my life. How can I ever thank you, Inoue…?" Rukia asked, smiling at her. Orihime felt tears coming to her eyes. She was exhausted, but she had offset her exhaustion so that she could talk to Rukia, however briefly, before she fainted.

"Just say that you'll forgive me…" Orihime said, still crying. Rukia looked at Orihime, surprised. She wasn't quite sure what Orihime was talking about. As far as she knew, Orihime hadn't done anything to hurt her.

"Forgive you for what? You just saved me…" Rukia said.

"I was a horrible person… I attacked you for no reason, and I haven't been able to sleep at night because I've been thinking about it! I just can't stop…"

"Stop! Orihime… stop. You're being silly. You don't have to be sorry, and you don't have to feel guilty. A mistake was made, and we're already over it. I've long since forgotten that even happened…" Rukia said, hugging Orihime tightly. Orihime had already passed out from exhaustion, though. Rukia shook Orihime hard, calling her name loudly.

"Inoue!! Inoue!!" she shouted. Kisuke stopped her, though, feeling Orihime's neck for a pulse. There was one, but it was weak. She had expended a great deal of energy on healing Rukia, and it was no simple task to actually bring a corpse back to life. Especially if it had been so mutilated that you would hardly even recognize it as a body. Orihime had drawn on her very life force in order to gather the necessary energy to negate death. She had risked her life in a very real way just to save Rukia.

Kisuke put Orihime down gently into a bed. He smiled at the chestnut haired girl. She was extraordinary in so many ways. In her demeanor, she was so humble, despite having a power that could rival that of the gods. It seemed almost unfair that a human would find this power, but Kisuke had long sensed that Orihime had the ability to be more than just a human. She could easily find her own inner Shinigami. She had already discovered the name of her Zanpakutô, though she hadn't discovered the rest of her powers. If she could develop her Shinigami abilities, she would be a truly valuable ally. He wanted that for her. But more than that, he wanted to be with her. He had found that he had fallen in love with her in the relatively short time that he had known her. It was unfair that she was a human and he was a Shinigami. Their lives were so different, and he was sure that she would never love him the way that he loved her.

"Life is cruel, isn't it, Ms. Yoruichi?" Kisuke asked, not turning around. He knew that Yoruichi was there, though. She had heard the noise upstairs and had come up, curious about what was happening. She was very catlike, and Yoruichi was beautiful as well, but Kisuke loved Orihime's innocence, her naïveté, her gentle spirit.

"Indeed, it is, Kisuke. But I warned you long ago that it would never work," Yoruichi said in almost a cold and indifferent tone. Kisuke could almost feel himself crying. He tried to smile, though, and turned around.

"Well, you don't have to be so blunt, Ms. Yoruichi. If it wasn't for my dreams, I would surely have gone insane long ago. Can't you just accept Miss Inoue as one of those dreams?" Kisuke asked. His speech was as eloquent as ever. He was a brilliant man, but sometimes, he was so naïve himself.

"Kisuke, I can't accept it. Do you know why?" The tall, dark woman asked softly, her eyes becoming less sharp by the moment.

"Why?"

"Because I hate to see you hurting. It isn't about whether you're human or Shinigami. It's about your soul. When I told you that it wouldn't work, it wasn't because I didn't think that she could ever love you. It's because you've long since decided that it isn't worth it to get close to people. You decided that it causes too much pain, and so you act idiotic, when really, you just want to annoy people so that they won't want to get too close to you. You do it with Ichigo. You do it with Rukia, and with me, and with your subordinates in the shop."

"You're right, Yoruichi. But I'm not sure I know how to make friends with people anymore. It's been so long since I've truly called anyone my friend that I'm… scared to try…" Kisuke said quietly, showing a rare vulnerability that almost endeared him to Yoruichi. She knew that Kisuke could be a nice person to be around. She loved him like a brother, and she wanted what was best for him. That was why she was sad to see him cut himself off from the world around him. He was a strong, good man, and he had so many things going for him that it almost hurt to see him so lonely. Yoruichi just sighed, though, and walked out, shaking her head in lack of comprehension. She just couldn't understand why Kisuke couldn't see his own strengths. He had so much still to offer Ichigo and his friends, and he was trapping himself in a world all his own.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

Orihime closed her eyes more tightly as she felt the strong sunlight filter through her eyelids. Her eyesight was somehow more powerful, or something like that. It didn't make sense. Maybe it was because she had opened up her soul to her Shunshunrikka. That may well have been it, because she now could also smell so many things that she didn't used to be able to. She opened her eyes and instantly felt a blaze of sunlight in her face. She had slept all night, if not longer. But she suddenly felt lighter, as though she wasn't entirely flesh and bone. She shed the blankets that covered her and shrieked. She was wearing something completely different from what she was wearing before she passed out. She was wearing Shinigami clothes, and she appeared to have a sword sitting next to her on the table. It was a small sword, just a tanto with a six petal flower shaped tsuba. She could only guess what its name was.

"Watashi wa kyozetsu suru, Shunshunrikka!" she called, watching as the sword glowed and split into two steel framed fans. She apparently wasn't meant to be a fighter, but to be a healer. Secretly, Kisuke watched her with growing pride. She was amazing in her ability to discover her Zanpakutô's abilities.

"Santen Kesshun!" Orihime called, drawing the shape of a triangular shield and moving it around with one hand. Orihime was incredible. She was discovering all of her abilities on her own. She had deduced merely from what her first power was that her Zanpakutô's ability was more or less the same. From his hiding place, he watched her form a healing area with her fans as well. She decided not to do her Koten Zanshun because of the possibility that it would damage something.

Finally, after practicing with her Zanpakutô, she looked in the closet that was nearby for a bathrobe. If she was going to be in any way presentable, she would have to take a shower. Kisuke blushed at what he knew she was about to do. Untying her obi around her waist, she leaned over, dropping it to the floor, showing her rather large cleavage. She next removed her gi slowly and dropped it to the ground as well, all the time not realizing that Kisuke was there. Smiling, she started to unhook her bra, shaking her hair out of her face, revealing her large breasts. Kisuke could feel the blush spreading across his face and his body heat rising. He watched lustfully as Orihime removed her hakama, leaving her in nothing but her panties. Through the door, he could see her beautiful, tight ass. He could feel an all too familiar tightness in his pants as his cock hardened at the sight. Behind him, he didn't realize that Yoruichi was watching him, smirking.

"So bold today, Kisuke…" she said with a snicker. Kisuke turned around just as she dropped her panties, and by the time he looked back, she had already put the bathrobe on. Kisuke cursed and looked venomously at Yoruichi. He was annoyed that Yoruichi had distracted him. He turned around irately again seeing that Orihime was coming to the door. He snapped his fingers and straightened up, acting as though nothing was wrong and suppressing the blush on his face. Yoruichi just snickered, but didn't say anything as Orihime came out and smiled at Kisuke and Yoruichi, both of whom grinned back at her.

"Bathroom is upstairs and first door on the right." Yoruichi said calmly and with a slight smirk. Orihime didn't pick up on it, though, and smiled as she walked past. Urahara would have noticed the slight blush that came to her face as she did.

"Peeping on little girls, now, eh, Mr. Urahara?" Yoruichi asked with a wide smirk. Kisuke just grinned.

"Well, I just went in to check on how she was doing, and I saw her practicing with her new released Zanpakutô. And I thought, I wouldn't want to bother her while she was so focused. But then, suddenly, she started to get undressed, and I figured I shouldn't pass up a chance to watch the girl of my dreams getting naked, so I just kept watching while suppressing my reiatsu so that she wouldn't notice me!" Kisuke said, just a little too loudly, because mere moments later, he felt a hard thunk on the head.

"DAMN PERV!! I CAN'T BELIEVE… Actually, the sad thing is that I can believe it!" Rukia said coldly. "How dare you treat Inoue that way, though!? She trusts you! She's always admired you and you act like she's just a peep show for you!"

"You misunderstand Miss Kuchiki. I think I'm in love with Miss Inoue."

"Bullshit! You only ever loved yourself!" Rukia spat angrily

"He isn't lying, Rukia Kuchiki. Why can't you show a little faith in Kisuke?" Yoruichi asked diplomatically.

Meanwhile, up in the shower, Orihime was blushing heavily. She couldn't help but get the feeling that she had just stripped in front of Kisuke. The most embarrassing part, though, was that she wasn't embarrassed about having done it. She had always thought that she only had feelings for Ichigo, but recently, she had realized these strange emotions when she was around the blonde haired shop owner. It was unlike what she had felt for Ichigo. Ichigo was her first love, and that would always be special to her, but she didn't feel that same thrum in her heart when she was around Ichigo anymore, and she was starting to feel that same way around Kisuke, like he was becoming more to her than just a helpful person who occasionally said funny things. He was funny, smart, handsome… everything she could want in a man… and yet, that wasn't what she liked most about him. She liked his gentler side. Even though he never outwardly showed it, she could feel it resonating in his soul, dying to come out and show itself in everything he did. He pretended to be a slightly perverted and annoying shopkeeper and nothing more, but she could sense that he was just protecting himself from being hurt. He had obviously suffered a very painful event in the past, and that made him aloof and unwilling to become close to people. Maybe she couldn't change him on his own, but she could certainly try. She loved him, and that was the only reason she needed to try to get him to open up. She had to take a leaf out of Rukia's book. She had gotten Ichigo to open up his heart and his soul, and Orihime knew that she could do the same for Kisuke.

Stepping out of the shower, she smiled sadly and squeezed her hair back into the bathtub, getting all of the excess water out of it and then towel drying it. She then put on her bathrobe and stepped out of the bathroom, releasing the steam that had accumulated in the air around her. She walked slowly down the stairs, pondering what she had learned about Kisuke, and wondering how to go about telling her how she felt about him. She couldn't just say outright that she loved him. That would be overly forward and kind of rude. Just as she was about to go into her room, Kisuke stopped her, pulling her into the room opposite them. She gasped as he sat her down on the bed and looked into her beautiful gray eyes.

"You're so beautiful, Miss Inoue… Words can't describe the feelings that I have for you, but I guess the best term to describe it would be… l-love." Kisuke said, blushing heavily. Orihime blushed and looked away nervously, touching her fingers together. She had never been so close to a man before, and while it felt kind of nice to have his body heat radiating into her own space and mixing with hers, it was kind of nerve wracking to have him looking so intensely at her.

"I-I love you, too… Mr…" she started. Kisuke put a finger up to her lips, though, smiling seductively at her, shaking his head.

"Call me Kisuke… at least when we're alone," he whispered with a grin, leaning in and kissing her softly on the lips, causing her to draw back slightly. Her first kiss. She had lived to feel it… to have it… to love it. She quickly leaned back in, though and kissed him back, holding him gently in her arms.

Beneath her relatively thin bathrobe, Kisuke could feel her breasts squeezing up against his body, causing him an erection to beat all others. He felt the heat in his face rising. The only way to solve the problem was… well… he knew what he had to do. He held her face and kissed her more passionately, pushing his tongue into her mouth and exploring every centimeter of it. She pushed her tongue into his mouth as well, and they began a short dance of tongues, each fiercely fighting for dominance, though Orihime knew that she wasn't a dominant person. That almost automatically meant that Kisuke would win… and he did. He soon pushed Orihime down further onto the bed, grabbing her wrist and holding it above her head while he ravaged her mouth with his tongue. Orihime moaned into his kiss, closing her eyes as he "took care of her". And he did an amazing job.

Kisuke slowly moved down to her neck, gently pulling her bathrobe's neck down her shoulder and laying butterfly kisses all down her neck and shoulders and on her collarbone. He smiled as Orihime twitched with pleasure under his ministrations. He continued to undress her, along with himself, taking off his long, black jacket along with pulling her robe wide open at the front, revealing her breasts to him. He gasped slightly, never having seen them up close as he set to working on them right away. He took one nipple in his mouth, sucking and nipping at it while flicking it occasionally with his tongue. He moved his other hand discreetly down to her pussy and touched her clit, causing her to jerk in pleasure. Orihime was truly a virgin. She had never even pleasured herself, so she was extremely sensitive. Plus, she had become more sensitive physically along with her transformation into a Shinigami. As he played with her pussy, she looked at him with a look that practically begged him to enter her. He decided not to just yet, though. He continued to play with her a bit more, causing her jerks of pleasure to increase with each brush over her clit.

Finally, Kisuke slowly slid one finger into her pussy, bringing it in and out at a painfully slow rate. Orihime pushed toward him, trying to get him to push in deeper, but Kisuke wanted her at her maximum pleasure when he took her for the first time ever. Still slowly, but speeding up just a tiny bit, he pushed a second finger into her, causing her to squirm in discomfort, but also in pleasure. She was amazed at how he was making her feel just by touching her. She had never known that anyone could do something so wonderful. She wanted more. Nay, she _needed_ more.

"P-please, Kisuke!" she begged.

"Please what?" Kisuke asked innocently, as if he had no idea what she wanted. In reality, he just enjoyed hearing her beg for sex. It wasn't that he just wanted to use her. It was more that he wanted to get as much enjoyment out of this one time as possible so he could make it the best time he could for both of them. He loved her so much, and he wanted to do anything to please her… or pleasure, as the case may be.

"I-I need you… inside… me! N-now…" she panted. He grinned as he took off his own gi and removing his pants and boxers to reveal a huge cock, causing Orihime to gasp. She wasn't sure that Kisuke would even fit inside of her.

Kisuke grinned and nodded, sitting down behind Orihime and teasing her pussy with his cock, causing her to hiss in pleasure. She could feel the ecstasy building up inside of her. She needed to release soon. If he didn't start fucking her soon, she would release before he even entered her. He finally pushed in, slowly at first as he halted at the barrier, causing Orihime to squinch in slight pain as he pushed the limits of it two or three times before he broke past it completely, smirking at the shocked and pained look on her face.

"Don't worry, darling. Soon, you'll only know pleasure…" he whispered in her ear, nibbling on it, causing her to moan again. Finally, after she adjusted to his size, he started to move in and out slowly as he could to prolong the pleasure that she was feeling. She gasped, begging him to move faster. He was only too happy to oblige. Moving slightly faster, he shoved himself in and out of her pussy, moving faster and faster with each thrust, finally coming inside her. She cried out his name in ecstasy as he did and while she came as well. This had been the most intense pleasure she had ever felt. But Kisuke wasn't done.

"Do you trust me?" he asked. Orihime nodded.

"Get on your hands and knees. I want to show you something. It will hurt a little bit, but it will be amazing after that."

She obeyed him, and soon, she felt a clench of agony in her ass as he pushed into her quickly, moving back and forth immediately. At first, it hurt like hell, but then the pleasure that she felt at it was so intense that it was almost blinding.

"Ah! Ah!!!" She cried. "AH! KISUKE!! OH, FUCK!! OH FUCK!!" she screamed as he thrust hard into her ass, hitting her rectum each time, almost causing her to cum with every strike. She just barely managed to stay on her hands and knees as they both came again, her all over the bed and him in her ass. Crying out his name in ecstasy, she collapsed to the bed in pleasure and exhaustion, panting for breath.

"K-Kisuke… H-how did you d-do that? How did you make it feel so… incredible!?" she asked of him. Kisuke smiled and laid down beside her.

"Well, my dear. I used my reiatsu to hit the spots in your body that would induce the most pleasure. It's a relatively simple trick. If we learn how to do it in unison, then it will more than quadruple the experience for both of us."

Satisfied with that answer, Orihime just went to sleep next to Kisuke, dreaming about the man that she loved.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter Thirteen

Gin sat morosely behind a huge box that was left in the warehouse to stay long ago, resting his ever curved back against it, looking at his arm in dismay. He was running out of places to cut it, and he was running out of clean clothes that would hide the cuts and the blood. Soon, he would have to start healing his wounds and start the cutting over again. He had already sliced his wrists and his hands, deciding now to wear gloves so that nobody could see.

It wasn't exactly that he was emo. He was just so depressed about all of the terrible things that he had done. He constantly had nightmares about his evil deeds, and he knew that as long as he lived, he would never be able to forgive himself. He looked at his sword. It was the only way out. It was the only way that he would ever be able to forgive himself. He had to die. He knew that it was the coward's way out, but he had always been a coward, anyhow, so it wasn't anything new.

Rangiku and he had broken up about a month ago. Rangiku had said that she needed to truly move on with her life… and Gin didn't blame her. He knew that he was a bad person, and a worse person to be around. He hated himself enough without Rangiku reminding him how terrible he was. She had assured him that it wasn't anything about him, but he was sure that she was lying to make him feel better. The sadness had been evident in his voice during the breakup. Maybe she felt sorry for him. Not that he deserved anyone's sympathy.

He started to say the release command for his sword, putting it right up against his heart when…

"Hiya, Ichi-kun…"

_Ichi-kun!? What the hell kind of nickname was that!? This girl had to be kidding._

"Um… H-hi… Kuna-san…" he said nervously, not looking at her, hoping that she didn't know what he had been about to do.

"It's Mashiro!" She said cheerfully, jumping down to look him in the eyes. She crouched down and stared right at him, bringing her face right up to his, their noses practically touching. She was as much a child as everyone had said she was. She had no sense of personal boundaries. They barely knew each other, and she was already acting like they were best friends or something.

"Y-yeah… M-Mashiro-san…" he said, still not looking at her. After a moment, she stopped smiling and looked away for a second, actually seeming a bit uncomfortable. If Gin had been paying closer attention, he would have noticed the blush that crossed her face for but a second.

"Are you okay, Ichi-kun?" she asked, looking at him, quirking an eyebrow and pouting slightly as though hurt by his inattention to her.

"I-I'm fine," Gin lied. He was about as far from "fine" as one could be, and yet, he felt slightly comforted just by being in this childish girl's presence. What was it about her that made him feel at ease? Was it her gentleness? Her innocence? Her absolute lack of common sense? No. It couldn't be any of that. Gin had never cared about that kind of shit in the past. He had always effectively been able to block people out of his life entirely. So why did he suddenly want someone in his life. Even if he was never going to find another woman to date, he wanted friendship. He wanted someone to be with when he felt alone. Was that so wrong? Did he not even deserve that? No. He couldn't honestly say that he felt he did deserve friends. Maybe he did deserve to be alone forever, and lonely… Maybe the pain of all that emptiness was his punishment for being evil for so long.

Mashiro cocked her head to the left, and then to the right, and then suddenly embraced Gin tightly. It was almost as though she knew exactly what he had wanted, and knew exactly how to give it to him. Could she actually read his mind? That was impossible. He stiffened slightly at the contact of the slightly younger girl… Actually, he wasn't sure how old she was. He had never bothered to ask, since the first time he met her was the time that he helped to turn her into a Vizard. Was she not angry at him for that? Was she trying to tell him that she forgave him? In a way, he hoped that she would never let go, but in a way, it was disconcerting to feel her next to him. He was unused to such contact.

"W-why?" he asked quietly.

"Why what? Why am I hugging you? I dunno. It just seemed like you needed one." She said brightly, smiling at him. As she hugged him, though, she grabbed his arm and pulled up his sleeve.

_Crap._

"I see. So you're the person whose blood I've been smelling lately. Why would you hurt yourself like that!?"

"A child like you would never understand! Just stop trying to act like an adult and go back to annoying your former captain!!" Gin shot at her. She drew back slightly at the sheer anger in his voice. He quickly calmed down, though, and sighed.

"Sorry, Miss Kuna. I didn't mean that." He assured her. She knew that it was true, though. She could be annoying, and she was childlike sometimes. Not always, though. She could be an adult, too if she wanted to be. She knew what adults did. Now all she had to do was act adult-like.

"Let's have sex, then." She said simplistically.

"Huh!?" Gin asked, as though perplexed by her comment. It was so out in left field that he couldn't see where she was coming from.

"That's what adults do, right? They have sex."

"No. That just proves what a child you are! Being an adult isn't about hedonism! It's about making important decisions that affect your life as well as the lives of those around you! The day I became an adult was the day that I decided to follow Aizen… the day I sullied my soul beyond redemption…" Gin said sadly, trying to hold his temper. He didn't get why Mashiro would think that being an adult was merely about pleasure seeking. What idiot told her that!? Or did she maybe get it from some stupid erotic magazine that that girl Lisa was always looking at?

"Nobody's soul is beyond redemption. As long as you yet have breath in your lungs, and your heart is still beating, you can still save your soul," she said gently, looking at him intensely. Gin wasn't sure what to make of her words. Maybe she was insane. That was a distinct possibility. But he didn't think she was just talking nonsense. He had never believed himself able to be saved, but maybe somewhere in his heart, he could yet save himself. Maybe the answers lay in the girl crouching before him.

"Hey! Do you wanna go shopping!?" she asked brightly. It was as though she knew what he had been looking to do. He had actually been looking for an excuse to get out of the warehouse for a while. From what he had heard, shopping was one way that humans passed a great deal of their time. It wasn't like he had anything that he needed to do. He smiled slightly and nodded, standing up and putting on his trench coat. It was cold out, but for some reason, Mashiro usually only wore that aviator's costume. Oddly enough, though, that night, she was wearing a short sleeved cotton dress that went down to her knees and cotton rainbow striped stockings with her usual goggle and on her feet were neon pink hi-top Converse sneakers. She certainly did have an odd way of dressing, but Gin couldn't help but admit that she looked cute in what she was wearing. He blushed slightly at this and slipped on his own sneakers, grabbed his wallet and followed Mashiro to the mall. Apparently, the mall was the typical human base of operations, where they often met to talk over plans, have dates, go to the movies, and play video games. The only video games that Gin had ever played were two player combat games and Dance Dance Revolution. He did love those kinds of games, though, because they played to his strengths.

Gin followed the shorter girl into the mall and looked around in marvel at the size of everything. Gin had brought a lot of money with him, about 50,000¥ ($575.00 approx.), so he certainly had the money to buy whatever he wanted. He just… didn't know quite where to start shopping. He had heard that human malls were big, but the tales of them in Soul Society were vastly under exaggerated. By Gin's estimation, one could get lost for hours in one of these malls and never be in the same place twice.

That was when he saw it… him, rather. The bane of his existence for lo the past century or so. He couldn't believe that he was seeing him. It was Aizen. Why was he there!? And he was with several Arrancar, including Luppi. To be honest, Gin kind of missed Luppi. They had gotten along well at one time, but he wasn't so sure that they would get along well anymore. Most of the Arrancar that were there, Gin didn't recognize, but he could feel their spiritual pressure. It was so intense. It was horrifyingly powerful. Aizen was wearing clothes that would very much suit him. He was wearing a formal men's kimono and zori sandals, and on his face, he was wearing his old glasses, his hair styled in the way that it was when he was in Soul Society, before he slicked it back. Aizen looked over and smiled gently.

"Hello, Gin. Hello, Miss Kuna. It's been a while, hasn't it?" he asked politely, putting the book that he was looking at down and walking over to them. Gin stiffened at Aizen's approach, feeling the much older Vizard release a blast of reiatsu just to mess with Gin's head a little bit. It was working more on Mashiro, though, who was ghostly pale with terror and drenched already in an ice cold sweat. She would have run, but she couldn't move from the place that she was standing. Gin looked down at her with sympathy at her trembling, and he hugged her gently.

"Don't worry, Miss Kuna. I promise, I won't let him hurt you…" he whispered in her ear. Mashiro nodded and hugged him tightly, feeling so humiliated at the moment. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, and she felt like she was about to throw up from the sheer intensity of Aizen's spiritual pressure.

"You two needn't worry. I'm merely in the human world on a sabbatical." He looked down at Mashiro and gently tussled her hair.

"I have no intention of hurting you, dear." He said softly. Gin could feel himself getting angrier at Aizen by the second. He couldn't just have left well enough alone. He had already scared her half to death. Now, Aizen was just taunting her. He suddenly went blind with rage and he heard himself yell some profanity at Aizen and then he blacked out.

Next thing he knew, he was standing over Aizen, looking icily at him, screaming at him. The entire store, despite how big it was, was looking upon him and the brown haired man, having broken his glasses and cut his hand on the glass. Aizen sighed and stood up, seeing that Gin wasn't going to hit him again. He noticed that the security guards were coming, but he put his hand up and smiled at them understandingly.

"It's nothing to worry about, officers. It was merely a misunderstanding on my part. I apologize for upsetting you, Gin, Miss Kuna. Do have a good date," he said softly, summoning for his Arrancar to follow him. The four Arrancar followed, several of them looked at Gin hostilely, but Luppi giggled slightly as he passed, remembering Gin punching out Aizen. Luppi had never liked Aizen much, so any excuse to see him being attacked was fun to watch. Gin smiled at Luppi. That was one thing that they still had in common. They both hated Aizen.

"Sir, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave. Please don't return to our store tonight." The security guard said to Gin, approaching him cautiously. They had seen the man's monstrous strength, despite being so incredibly skinny, and they didn't want to anger him further. Gin just nodded, though, and started walking, not really expecting Mashiro to follow him after what he had done that night. Surprisingly, though, she did, and she went with him out of the store, holding his hand as the two guards followed him there to make sure that he complied. Gin smiled broadly at the two guards as he and Mashiro left, causing the guards to shudder slightly. He looked sadly at Mashiro and apologized for causing her trouble.

"It's alright, Ichi-kun. I know you were just trying to help!" she said cheerily, smiling brightly at him. He smiled at her, showing a shy sort of grin that he rarely showed to anyone.

Gin could hear other girls giggling and feel their stares upon him in the background. He tried to ignore it, but it felt as though they were boring holes through his gigai.

"Hey, d'you see that guy with the silver hair?" one girl asked quietly. Gin's ears perked up and he focused his hearing on that conversation for a moment, holding his hand up for Mashiro to stop for a moment.

"Yeah, I see him. Isn't he cute? He must be a foreigner with that color hair. Do you think that girl with him is his girlfriend?" another girl asked, giggling slightly. A third girl shook her head.

"No. It couldn't be. He's way too mature looking for her. She must be his younger sister or something. I dare you to go talk to him…" A third girl said to the first girl. The first girl laughed and shook her head.

"No! You go talk to him! You're the one who suggested it!"

"Okay!" said the second girl. "Let's just all go talk to him together!" Gin stiffened upon hearing this. He looked over at Mashiro, who was at the window of another store, looking at a dress in it. He sighed. He wasn't sure if he wanted to talk to other people. He wasn't really very good at making small talk, and he was uncomfortable in social situations, and especially around women.

"Hi! Umm… I'm Chihiro." One of the girls said to him, surprising him, causing him to jump inside a little bit, though he didn't let it show. He had been frozen, and forgot to try to get Mashiro and run. They had caught up with him, though, and he couldn't be rude, now. He turned and smiled nervously, hoping that he seemed sincere.

"Oh, hello, Miss Chihiro."

"I'm Kaoru" the second one said. Gin waved.

"I'm Kira…" the third one chirped brightly, grinning at Gin.

"I'm uhh… I'm Gin…"

"Gin!?" the three asked together, giggling slightly. "Is that your real name or a nickname?" Kaoru asked. Gin sighed.

"N-no… It's my real name. My parents named me Gin because of my hair. They're both foreigners, but they had me in Japan, so they gave me a Japanese name and called me Gin because of my silver hair." Gin lied. He couldn't believe the shit that was coming out of his mouth. That couldn't have been any further from the truth. In fact, he was just making it all up on the spot. He didn't know where he came from. He had called himself Gin. He didn't know his name when he first woke up in Rukongai, so he made one up, and by the time he remembered his real name, he was so used to having everyone call him Ichimaru Gin (which he named himself because of the single silver coin lying next to him when he did wake up.) Someone must have dropped it next to him or something. He still had the coin that very day, actually, though he rarely looked at it, since he just wore it as a necklace under his clothes.

"Oh, isn't that interesting?" Chihiro asked insincerely. Gin was the master of insincerity. He knew when someone was telling a lie because he was so good at it.

"Hey, why don't you leave your baby sister in Build-A-Bear Workshop or something and actually have some fun with us? Kira asked with a derogatory laugh at Mashiro's expense. Gin scowled inwardly, but didn't say anything at first.

"Actually, Mashiro-chan isn't my little sister. She's my girlfriend. Hey, Mashiro-chan!" he called. Mashiro looked up and walked over at Gin's call, smiling at the three girls that he was talking to.

"Hiya! I'm Kuna Mashiro!" she said brightly, grabbing Gin's hand with both of hers. The three girls glared at her, and the second Gin looked away, she stuck her tongue out at them as if to say that Gin was hers.

"Well, here's my number. If you're ever in need of a more _mature_ relationship, gimme a call…" Chihiro said rudely, pausing just momentarily after mature to allow Gin's mind to decide what it meant, and smirking at Mashiro, who dragged her eye down slightly, showing the pink beneath it.

"I don't like those girls, Ichi-kun!" she said loudly to Gin after the girls were out of earshot. Gin nodded.

"I know. I know… Humans can be annoying creatures, Miss Kuna."

"When are you going to stop calling me Miss Kuna!?" she asked, pouting again. She was just too cute.

"I dunno," he said, stroking her cheek with his two forefingers. "When are you gonna stop calling me Ichi-kun?" Gin asked in a smooth, silky voice. Gin wasn't very good around people that he didn't know, but for some reason, Mashiro made him feel really at ease and really natural. Mashiro giggled.

"Okay, Gin-kun. Is that better?" she asked. Gin smiled and nodded.

"And I suppose you would prefer to be called Mashiro-chan?" Gin asked, bending down and smiling at her. Mashiro nodded, but then pointed to the arcade, shouting about how much she wanted to go. Yes, in some ways, Mashiro was mature, but in others, she was still a child.

Gin grinned when he saw that there was a DDR stage. He went over to it and looked it over. It was just about the same size as the one that there was in Soul Society, and much the same as the smaller pad that he had in Hueco Mundo. He had always been good at dancing, both formal and contemporary. So, it was natural for him to do DDR. He jumped up on the stage and put 100 yen coin in. Mashiro jumped up on the stage and put in her money.

"Mashiro-chan, you're good at DDR?" Gin asked, surprised that she was good at something like that.

"Oh, yeah! You didn't know that? I'm great at it. I challenge you to a dance at the hardest level!"

"I accept your challenge!" Gin said brightly, tapping on the stage to select a song. He chose "You're Gonna Go Far Kid", by Offspring, and then selected "impossible" as the level. It went to the dance screen and Mashiro and Gin geared up to dance their hearts out that night, each determined to beat the other. It seemed that already, they were attracting a crowd of people who wanted to watch them dance. It always made it more fun when you had to do it in front of a crowd. Gin wasn't usually good in a crowd. He preferred to be with a few close friends, but he was sort of getting lost in the adventure of the night. He had never really been on a date before, unless he counted the times that he went drinking with Rangiku dates. The music started and Gin began to move to the beat and to the direction of the arrows. Up, Down, Up, Right, Left, Hold Left and Right… It was all going so fast that he barely had time to think. That was how he liked it though. It gave him solace from his other problems, like the guilt that he constantly felt, much to his own consternation. But performing in front of a big crowd of people, nailing every single move and competing against a girl that he really liked was a lot of fun. It was fun like he hadn't had in over a century.

_Stomp, Stomp, Stomp!_

_With a thousand lies  
And a good disguise  
Hit 'em right between the eyes  
Hit 'em right between the eyes _

Gin could feel the music flowing through him as he moved, making musical fusion as he stomped to the beat. He could vaguely hear the oohs and ahhs of the crowd around him, but he paid them no heed. He only paid attention to the screen and to his own dancing._  
When you walk away  
Nothing more to say  
See the lightning in your eyes  
See 'em running for their lives_

He could practically see the music, now. The world that he was in was completely cut off from the world around him, and he loved it. Nothing could compare. He continued to dance until the music died down and they did one last hold step. He sighed and took a deep breath. That was a long song, but he waited for the scores to come up. Oddly enough, they had actually tied. They had both gotten a perfect score. Gin and Mashiro both could hear the crowd cheering behind them. Slowly, the two stepped down and high fived each other before walking out

The rest of the night went smooth as cream, and eventually, they decided to leave. Mashiro looked over at Gin. She could see that something was bothering him already. He really was a troubled soul. She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him lightly on the lips, as if to ask him to stop worrying so much. He just smiled at her sadly and looked away, though.

"What's wrong, Gin-kun? Didn't you have fun tonight?" she asked, starting to worry that maybe he was bored being with her. That wasn't the case, though.

"No. Quite the contrary. You helped me forget for a little while. But, I don't want you to spend time with me just because you… you feel sorry for me. I don't want your pity."

"You think it's pity I feel? I was nervous about asking you to go to the mall with me, and I was going to ask you before I even knew that you were feeling depressed. I wanted to spend time with you because… I love you. You try to hide yourself from others, but you don't have to. The Vizard weren't hesitant to let you in because we held a grudge. We were hesitant because we weren't sure if you were really still with Aizen. But any doubt that we may still have had is gone after tonight. I'll tell them about what happened. Th-thank you for doing that for me. I was really scared that he was going to hurt us."

"I-I'm not sure… I've really never felt love before. The closest thing that I've ever felt was my infatuation with Matsumoto… But… I think I love you too. I'm honored that you feel that way about me, but… I'm not sure that I can give you all that you deserve. Please find someone else." Gin asked politely, smiling at her. She scowled at him and grabbed his shoulders, pulling him in close.

"It can't _be_ anyone else! It has to be you! Do you think that I would kiss just anybody!? I was confused about my feelings at first, too! But then I realized that it didn't matter who you were or what you had done in the past! If my soul was telling me that I loved you, then I couldn't ignore that!" she said insistently under the streetlight that shone brightly over them, flickering occasionally. Suddenly, Gin felt a tug at his back pocket, and heard his wallet fall to the ground. He turned around and grabbed the man's wrist tightly, holding it in a vise grip and grinning evilly at him, in much the same way that he did in Soul Society.

"Thank you for trying to trying to return my wallet to my pocket so discreetly. Now, if you don't want to lose that hand, I suggest you get out of my sight, now!" he said in a falsely jovial tone, his smile turning to an ice cold glare that could scare even the hardiest of men. The would be thief nodded and ran off as fast as he could while Gin picked up his wallet, dusted it off and put it back in his pocket, snorting.

He just sighed then, and smiled at Mashiro, trying to pick up where he left off, but the moment was ruined, so they just held hands and walked back to the warehouse together. When they got there, they shared a short kiss and then walked in together, noting that none of the other Vizard were there, which was convenient for them. Now they didn't have to explain why they were seen coming back in together.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

"Happy Valentine's Day, Ichigo…" Rukia said, handing Ichigo a package of chocolates. Ichigo looked at her in surprise. He never knew that Rukia even knew about Valentine's Day. Yet here she was, giving him chocolates. Now it was Ichigo's turn to surprise Rukia. He smiled and took the chocolates, kissing her in thanks. Rukia rolled her eyes. Ichigo was still such a prude sometimes. She took hold of him and kissed him passionately, pushing at his mouth, which opened immediately, giving Ichigo room to slip his tongue into Rukia's. He was surprised that she wanted to do this so soon after being raped. Even if it was only kissing, he was sure that it would remind her of what happened to her. Maybe she didn't feel bad about it anymore since she traded her old gigai in and burned it and got a new one from Kisuke, who seemed all too happy to help her, though she couldn't figure out why he was in such a good mood. Knowing him, though, it had to be something perverted. She embraced Ichigo tightly, pressing her entire body up against him, making fairly clear what she wanted.

"R-Rukia… S-so soon after…?" Ichigo began. Rukia stopped him with another passionate kiss. She had been reading books on how to give your partner the best sex of his life. Of course, this was going to be the first sex of Ichigo's life, but who was counting. She had been long awaiting the day that she could finally have sex with Ichigo. Ever since she started going out with him, she had been wanting it to varying degrees, but now seemed like the perfect time… the perfect Valentine's Day gift. She was going to give Ichigo her virginity. Technically, the rape didn't count, since it happened to her gigai… not her soul. So there! Fuck you, asshole rapist!

Ichigo moaned into her kiss and then pushed her up against the nearest rock, pinning her hands above her head. She smiled at the force he was using, and rolled her head to the side, allowing him to plant kisses down her jaw and collarbone. Ichigo slowly removed her shirt, playing with her small breasts underneath her bra gently, caressing them. He had once been stuck at Asano's house while he was watching a stupid porno before he even became a representative Shinigami, and he learned a few things about sex from that. He couldn't believe that he was actually using such vulgar information, though. Nonetheless, her breasts felt good. Firm, yet soft in his hands, the perfect size. He could feel his inner Hollow laughing, but he just mentally kicked it in the face and shut it up immediately. He looked down at her bra and quickly removed it, while Rukia removed his shirt. As he took Rukia's left breast in his mouth, flicking her nipple with his tongue every so often, Rukia raked her fingers up and down Ichigo's chest, dragging her reiatsu along with them. She could see Ichigo squirming inside his pants. Rukia sighed as Ichigo's hands moved down to her pussy and dragged her panties off of her, leaving her completely naked. He leaned down and slowly moved his tongue into her hole, making sure to flick her clit as he did, causing Rukia to gasp in shock at how good it felt.

Little did Rukia know that Ichigo had borrowed a book on sex from Kisuke, who had read just about every book known to human and Shinigami on the topic, and written a few himself on unique styles of lovemaking that he had come up with himself. Ichigo had to read in private, and he had borrowed Kisuke's entire collection. He couldn't believe he was doing something so perverted as that, but he didn't want to bore Rukia his first time. From what he had heard, that was sort of a dealbreaker.

Rukia moaned and gasped in pleasure as Ichigo moved his tongue in and out of her, using his reiatsu to coat his tongue to enhance the pleasure, causing her to positively buck in ecstasy. She couldn't believe he was so good at sex.

"H-have… you… ever… d-d-done *AH!!* this befo… before!? *Augh!!*" she asked, perplexed at his skill. Ichigo smirked and shook his head, dragging his tongue back and forth while he did, causing Rukia to release her juices into his open mouth. Ichigo then slid a finger into her pussy and started prodding in and out, moving it back and forth against the walls of her hole. She gasped, hardly able to contain herself from screaming in ecstasy. Finally, she managed to force herself to sit up and tear Ichigo's pants and boxers down, revealing a huge cock. What she didn't know was that Ichigo was naturally this big, and that he was only planning on making himself bigger with his reiatsu.

Ichigo smiled seductively and sat up, leaning over and nibbling slightly on Rukia's ear, eliciting a moan from her. He then quickly pushed his way into her, breaking past her barrier all at once and burying himself up to the hilt. Gently, he whispered in her ear, "Bankai…" and the energy exploded around them. Rukia smirked and released her Bankai as well so they were both at maximum energy. Ichigo didn't need to put on his hollow mask to draw on his hollow's powers, since they were now perfectly fused with his Shinigami powers, though he could have if he wanted to make himself even more powerful. Rukia screamed in pleasure as Ichigo began to thrust in and out of her as hard as he could, releasing a blast of reiatsu with each thrust in, and Rukia released a blast of reiatsu with each pull out. After a while, they both came, letting their cum flow everywhere. Ichigo came so much that it started to squirt out of Rukia's pussy and pool on the ground.

Ichigo was about to pull out and put his pants back on, but Rukia stopped him and got on her hands and knees, taking his still bulging cock in her mouth and licking up and down, dragging trails of reiatsu enhanced saliva all over him, causing him to shake in pleasure. He groaned as she moved up and down his cock, making him get closer and closer to orgasm by the second. When he was ready to cum, though, she didn't let him. He looked at her, slightly pained. She just smirked, though, and continued, blocking his cum from flowing out. He could feel more and more cum building up inside, and it was almost starting to be painful when she finally let it all burst forth. He sighed in relief as his release spilled into her open mouth, and she swallowed it all.

Now, Ichigo was feeling aggressive. He moved around to Rukia's back and held her hips in place, positioning his cock at the entrance to her ass. Rukia looked at him, blushing slightly. She wasn't sure she was ready. Ichigo had to do it, though, so he pushed into her slowly, dragging out the process of entering, while Rukia adjusted to his size inside her. She groaned in pain as he finally buried himself all the way into her ass, resting as he hit her rectum and releasing a huge blast of reiatsu inside her, enough to make her release immediately. He smirked at her reaction and then began to thrust quickly, not leaving her time to react as he thrust in and out, causing her to absolutely shriek in pleasure as he fucked her harder and harder in the ass, and she started begging him to go harder still. He released progressively larger blasts of reiatsu directly into her rectum until finally, they both came so much that they didn't stop for almost thirty seconds. When they were finally done, they collapsed on the bed and fell asleep together, content with their Valentine's Day.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter Fifteen

Hinamori skipped merrily to her mailbox to see if Shinigami Weekly had come yet, which always had articles on innovative uses of old Kidô, and sometimes even brand new Kidô that she could learn. They also had battle strategy, and the ever expanding bounty list on various Hollows and Arrancar. She mostly looked at this, though, to see Aizen's picture. She knew that he had abandoned her, and tried to kill her, but for some reason, she couldn't stop thinking about him. There was something about his touch, about his voice that always healed any wounds she may have had, and with him gone, it felt like she was being torn apart.

When she got to the mailbox, she noticed that there was an issue in there. She grinned brightly and took it out, running back home as quickly as she could so that she could read it. When she got home, she slammed the door and sat down on her small couch and sat cross-legged, hunched over the magazine. She noticed in the table of contents that unlike most issues, Aizen had his own article that week. She quickly tore it open and saw a large photograph of him, both in his Shinigami uniform and his Hueco Mundo outfit. He was so handsome, so strong looking. She wished that could be the real Aizen. She quickly started reading by the light of the lamp just above her.

_Aizen Sôsuke has become a top priority in Soul Society. According to our intelligence, his Arrancar army is nearing completion. Former Shinigami representative Kurosaki Ichigo, and former 13__th__ squad member Kuchiki Rukia were seen fighting against a Vastorode level Espada late at night on the night of Wednesday, February 11__th__, Kuchiki Rukia is believed to be dead, and Kurosaki Ichigo barely managed to force the Arrancar to retreat back to Hueco Mundo. Given the severity of the situation, Aizen Sôsuke's assassination has been made a top priority, and any Shinigami, regardless of rank, who achieves this mission shall be paid in the amount of 1,000,000 kan. _

After this, Hinamori couldn't read anymore. The tears in her eyes were blurring the pages so much that she couldn't see anymore. She felt so weak for not being able to give Aizen up. It wasn't a matter of willpower. It was just that he had been so important to her, and she just simply couldn't forget all of the times that he had helped her in the past. He had always been there when she was upset. He had always offered her a shoulder to cry on. He always had words of encouragement.

She was starting to wonder if she was really so pathetic that she had to hold on to a memory of a man who betrayed her so completely to remember even how to be happy. Sure, she pretended to smile when she was around other people. There were two reasons that she pretended. One, she didn't want people to know how pathetic she was, and two, she didn't want anyone's sympathy. Especially Tôshirô's. He was right. He was a captain, and he didn't have time to be worried about her. He never directly said anything like that to her, but she knew he was thinking it. Sometimes she wished Tôshirô would talk to her like they used to talk back before he became a captain and she became a lieutenant. They were just in completely different worlds, now, though, and the bond that they once shared was gone. Suddenly, she was scared out of her sobbing by a knock at the front door. Whoever it was sounded like they were impatient. Maybe it was Tôshirô. No. That was too much to hope for.

"HINAMORI!! I KNOW YOU'RE IN THERE!! I SEE YOUR LIGHTS ON!!!" Hitsugaya called. Momo jumped over her couch from a sitting position and ran to the door, sliding on her socks and crashing violently, messing up her hair and giving herself a few scrapes and bruises while she was at it. She finally stood and opened the door. In front of her stood Hitsugaya and Matsumoto. Tôshirô looked analytically at Momo and looked back at Matsumoto, scowling.

"Matsumoto, I uh… I think I left the lights in the Tenth Division office on. Could you go check, please?"

"Huh? But… Sure…" she said, confused. They hadn't come from the Tenth Division office. They had come from a captain's meeting. Rangiku met Tôshirô along the way and they went to Momo's house, though Tôshirô sort of forgot why they were there, now.

Rangiku disappeared in a flash and Tôshirô smirked at Momo.

"What's wrong, clumsy?" he asked jokingly. Normally, Momo would have just laughed, but this time, it really stung.

"That was mean!" she shouted angrily, huffing in mock annoyance.

Tôshirô just sighed, though and waved his hand dismissively before looking at Momo again, trying desperately to make up a reason for being there.

"Um… Did you get your issue of Shinigami Weekly yet? Um… The Commander General says that he plans to send a group of Shinigami down to the human world to monitor Karakura Town."

"W-would you like to come in, C-Captain Hitsugaya?" Momo asked, surprising Tôshirô with her formality. He nodded and followed her inside. He had never actually been inside her house, so it was all new to him. He could see where she fell and broke the coat rack. Maybe he could help her clean that up.

"You were crying, Hinamori. What about?"

"I don't want to talk about it…" she said sourly, somewhat surprised that Tôshirô had even bothered to ask. Normally, he wouldn't ask. He would just move on to business. He was a very serious person for someone so young. She sometimes worried about him. If he kept scowling like that, he would get permanent wrinkles on his face… Not that it should matter to her, but… she always thought that she just loved him like she would love a brother, but recently, she had started to see him as more, and it was so confusing for her. She thought that she was in love with Aizen, so she had no need to address her growing feelings for Tôshirô. If she loved Tôshirô, though, did that mean that she was beginning to get over Aizen.

"I-I'll make s-some te… some tea for… us…" she said quietly and somewhat mechanically. Tôshirô looked at her oddly as she stiffly walked out of the living room and into the kitchen, where she put some water on the stove to boil. She stood over the pot, looking into the water at her own reflection, suddenly getting the feeling that she was watching herself from a distance… like an out of body experience. In a way, it was comforting, like she didn't have to deal with being herself for just a moment maybe. But in another way, it was deeply disturbing, like she didn't know who she herself was anymore. Between her irritable best friend to whom she was oddly attracted, and her handsome, charismatic former captain… who tried to kill her… yeah. That sort of stuck a sword through her fantasies… haha… a sword… sometimes, she found her own jokes kind of pathetically funny.

Suddenly, tears began to blur her vision. She put her hand down on the stove, forgetting that the burner was on and hit the handle of the pot, spilling boiling hot water all over herself and then dropping her hand right on the burner. For a few moments, she felt nothing, a delayed response, as though her body wasn't quite connecting what happened. It was an odd sensation. It was almost pleasant at first. After the pleasant sensation faded, a sort of tingling up her entire arm occurred, then…

Hisssssss…. Blinding, white hot agony seared through her entire body, like her entire being was on fire from the Commander General's Zanpakutô, Ryûjin Jaaka. It coursed through her veins like acid, burning up her entire body.

"EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!" She shrieked in agony as she pulled her hand away from the stove, noticing that a layer of skin had come off of her hand.

Tôshirô heard her screaming and he ran into the kitchen, turning on the light, noticing immediately that she was soaking wet and that her skin was bright red and her left hand was charred black and bleeding profusely from the skin that had been seared off her hand. Panicking slightly, he looked around and grabbed her arm roughly, dragging her over to the sink and running her hand under cold water. He immediately put his hand over his face, using hakufuku to knock her unconscious. He then picked her up on his back and jumped clean through the open window and landed on the ground, practically stepping on Rin as he did.

"S-sorry! I gotta go!!" Tôshirô shouted, running from Rin, who merely sat there for a moment, blinking and regaining his composure.

Running through Seireitei, Tôshirô turned right, then an immediate left and then right again. He knew the way to Fourth Division by heart, but he wasn't really paying attention, and he suddenly felt an impact and practically trampled a second Shinigami.

"H-Hanatarô!? Stay outta my way!!"

"S-sorry, Captain Hitsugaya!" he cried, dodging as Tôshirô ran right through him. As soon as he was out of earshot, he started wondering why he didn't just ask Hanatarô to heal her. He couldn't go back, though. He was already pretty close to the Fourth Division headquarters. He put on a burst of speed, suddenly realizing that he could have been using Shunpô all along, and he did three or four Shunpô in rapid succession to make it the rest of the way to the Fourth Division.

"CAPTAIN UNOHANA!! CAPTAIN UNOHANA!!!" Tôshirô shouted loudly, forgetting that it was after 2200h.

Slowly, Unohana Retsu walked out, yawning widely. Tôshirô drew back slightly, seeing that her hair wasn't braided, and was just tied back sloppily in a ponytail. At a sluggish pace, she opened her eyes and looked at Tôshirô, who just stared back at her in shock. He gently put Momo down and fell to his knees, his legs finally giving out from all the running that he had been doing.

"Please forgive my intrusion… C-captain. Lieutenant Hinamori of Fifth Squad was injured in her kitchen and needs immediate medical attention!!" he shouted, causing Unohana to reach up and cover her ears for how loudly Tôshirô was speaking. She sighed and picked up Momo, looking at her arm and her hand.

"What happened? And please speak a little more softly this time…" Unohana said politely, but firmly, as though she were talking to an unruly subordinate.

"She burned herself badly on some tea water and then fell on the stove," Tôshirô said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. It wasn't so obvious to Unohana, though. She had never known Momo to be clumsy, and she had certainly never known her to make such grave mistakes as spilling boiling hot water on herself. She figured that she must have been preoccupied. But if Hitsugaya had been there, perhaps they were on a date or something like that. She smiled to herself and tore off Momo's sleeve, looking at the burn on her arm. She first pulled some aloe cream out and began to apply it gently to the burn and to her burned hand. Then she said a short incantation and began to heal the wounds. She couldn't completely fix it, though.

"I'm not sure that I can entirely fix a wound this severe. Her hand has a third degree burn on it. This will likely take weeks of recovery, and I'm not even sure if she'll ever use this hand again. You know who might be able to help?"

"WHO!?!?!?" Tôshirô shouted, leaning in, eager to do anything that it required to save Hinamori. Unohana smiled and said quietly, "That human girl… Inoue Orihime… I think her name was. She has powers of healing that might even surpass my own. I'm not sure if it will work, but it can't hurt to try, right? She's a good hearted woman. I'm sure if you asked her nicely, she'd be willing to help you."

Tôshirô nodded and ran out the door, opening a portal to the Human world forthwith.

_Inoue Orihime. Inoue Orihime. I know that name! Where have I heard it before? Is that… no. That's Kurosaki's sister, not that I can remember her name, either, but still… Inoue Orihime. Was she that chestnut haired girl with the strange sense of taste? YES!! I can feel her spiritual pressure, now, but it's odd. It's similar in smell and texture to my own. Like she's a Shinigami, but she's a human. As far as I knew, Kurosaki was the only human in history to ever become a Shinigami. It isn't entirely impossible, though. If one human managed to become a Shinigami, why couldn't another?_

Tôshirô kept running until he felt her spiritual pressure drawing near, at which point, he jumped up on a building, hiding in wait for Orihime to come by. He silently watched her as she turned the corner. She was in her Shinigami clothes. That was perfect. He could easily waylay her and kidnap her that way, because in Shinigami form, she could use a Hell Butterfly.

Silently, he followed her above the buildingtops for a few blocks as he saw her approaching Urahara Shoten. What he didn't understand was why she would be going into Urahara Kisuke's store so late at night. That didn't concern him, though. He jumped down and glared straight into her eyes, drawing his sword and pointing it at her. He didn't have time for niceties, and he didn't have time for introductions.

"H-Hitsugaya Tôshirô!?" Orihime shouted just before she had her mouth covered and she was dragged off by Hitsugaya and through the portal. As they ran through, he explained the situation to her.

"Inoue, I apologize for waylaying you like this, especially so late at night, but it was necessary. Lieutenant Hinamori Momo of Fifth Division has been badly injured, and needs your particularly potent healing abilities."

"I understand. Is Hinamori-san very important to you?" Orihime asked, figuring that she knew why he was going so far as to drag her all the way to Soul Society. For a moment, Tôshirô was surprised, but he regained his composure quickly, and nodded. "I suppose you could say that she's the most important person in my life." He said quickly, making it through to the other side of the gate and closing it behind Orihime.

"Can you use Shunpô, Inoue?" he asked quickly and somewhat roughly. Orihime shook her head. Tôshirô cursed, but sighed and kept running. He didn't have time to teach her how to use Shunpô, so for the moment, they would just have to run. They were pretty close to the Fourth Division headquarters, anyhow. He grabbed her hand violently and used his own Shunpô, leaving her to fly in the air behind him, ignoring the drag on his own arm until they got to the Fourth Division headquarters, at which point, Orihime started rubbing her shoulder.

"That really hurt. Did you have to grab me so hard?"

"Unless you would have preferred to fly off into a building or something, then yes. Now, hurry up!" he said curtly, dragging her into the building unceremoniously. He pulled her into the back where Momo lay in a bed. Orihime looked down at Momo and smiled, wondering if she was even awake yet. Nonetheless, she began to use her Sôten Kisshun on Momo's arm and hand, which were the obviously afflicted areas. She focused for a moment and then when the damage was reversed, she stopped and smiled back at Tôshirô.

"There! She's all healed! When she wakes up, she should be able to go home!" Orihime said brightly, starting to walk out of the Fourth Division. Unohana stopped her, though, and said, "Miss Inoue… How would you like to learn more about medicine and healing? I could teach you all I know, and it wouldn't take you that long to pick up on it, I'm sure. Given your grades in school, I would imagine that learning this stuff would be a breeze," Unohana said with a wide smile. Orihime nodded. It sounded great to be able to learn healing spells and various other techniques in addition to her already prodigious skill in event rejection, which she mostly used for healing and revival of the dead now, as well. If she could bring back the dead, that meant that there never needed to be casualties in a war again. Soul Society needed never lose a Shinigami to Hollows again. Orihime could theoretically bring anyone she wanted back to life. Of course, there was a downside to that as well. If she wanted, she could also kill anyone she wanted just by wishing it so. However, Unohana wasn't worried about that. She could see that Orihime was a gentle soul, and that she was eager to help her friends and those in need. And currently, Soul Society needed all the healers they could get. Especially if they were to fight an all out war against Aizen and his improved Arrancar army.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter Sixteen

Toshiro and Momo looked at each other shyly. Neither one was willing to make the first move, though they both wanted to be together, and both knew that the other wanted them. Toshiro was a little bit afraid, though. He was afraid that their relationship would be scorned by Soul Society because he was a captain and she was a lieutenant. Would people look down on him? Think that he used her, that he abused his authority over her? He didn't technically have much authority over her. He wasn't her captain. He was Matsumoto's, and he wouldn't even think of doing anything with Matsumoto like he wanted to do with Hinamori. He wanted to hold Momo. He wanted to kiss her, love her, ravage her… make her his forever, never let her go. He couldn't think like that, though. He had to be appropriate. He was a captain for Kami's sake! He couldn't be having sordid affairs with subordinate officers.

And so, he just looked at her, blushing heavily. Soon, though, Momo couldn't take it anymore.

"Hitsugaya-kun? D-do you… you know… h-have… feelings for me?" she asked nervously. He looked at her hard for a moment, causing her to jump in her seat. "I-I mean! I'm sorry I asked! It's inappropriate, isn't it! You're a captain and… and I'm a lieutenant!"

"And what would you even do if I said I did?" Toshiro asked, staring off into space. Momo wasn't quite sure of what to say to this, but she tried her best.

"W-well, I-I would say th-that I love you, and… that I wanted to know if you would go out with me!"

"And I suppose that hypothetically, you would also be secretly expecting that I would say yes?" he asked in almost a mocking tone. He wasn't good at this kind of thing. In fact, he was terrible with girls he liked. He had enough experience with that just based on Momo alone. He had been in love with her for so long, that he couldn't even remember a time that he didn't love her. Of course he was going to say "yes", but he just wanted to make her sweat for a little bit. He had heard that girls went for the cold treatment, though he very much questioned the credibility of that claim.

"W-well… I-I mean… if you d-don't want to… I-I guess… that's alright. I-I'm sorry I asked, Captain Hitsugaya…" she said timidly. Toshiro looked at her, cocking his head to the side. Next, he scowled.

"Oh, lighten up, Momo… I was just pulling your leg. You have like… no sense of humor! Of course I'm going to say yes! I love you, Momo," he said, turning away. Suddenly, though, he was grabbed tightly by Momo and she kissed him on the cheek. Blushing, Toshiro looked at her fiercely and then took her soft, pink lips in a kiss that threatened to last forever. Finally, though, they broke away for air, and immediately started kissing again, with Toshiro forcing his tongue in Momo's mouth, exploring every corner of it while Momo did the same, starting a slow dancing of tongues. Toshiro stood and pushed Momo up against the wall, holding her hands up against the wall over her head. Momo moaned into Toshiro's mouth as he ravaged hers with his tongue and began to untie her white belt on her gi.

Momo blushed slightly, but started to shrug the gi off her shoulders, revealing her silky smooth, ivory skin. Toshiro made his way down her neck, kissing down to her shoulder. Just as that happened, though, Toshiro's front door opened and Kuchiki Byakuya walked in. He looked at them for a moment, shocked, and then blushed, looking away.

"Th-the Commander-General wants you to assemble a team of captains and lieutenants to go to the Human w-world… I'm already going, so choose three other lieutenants and two other captains and meet us at the North Gate of Seireitei in two hours." He said formally, walking out. As he did, though, Toshiro heard him mutter something about children not having any morals these days.

Toshiro looked at Hinamori and pushed himself off of her, letting her hands fall to her side. He sighed and turned away for a moment, blushing heavily.

"S-sorry. I-I don't know what came over me…" he said quietly, almost incoherently. Momo heard him, though, and shook her head.

"I'm not sorry. I'm glad that you love me, and I was happy to be doing it as well… We should gather the forces together."

Toshiro nodded. He was going to get Zaraki and Komamura. Along with Zaraki, naturally, Yachiru would want to go, so that was one lieutenant. He could get Renji and he was going to bring Momo. Together, the two walked out of the house, grabbing their Zanpakutô, knowing that they wouldn't be able to come back for them later. After that, they used Shunpô to find the other members of the team.

Renji, Byakuya, Momo, Toshiro, Zaraki, and Yachiru all stood at the gate, waiting to go to the Human world. Byakuya finally opened the gate and started walking through, leading the rest to the other side and into the Human world.

Byakuya sighed and looked at the rest of the group. He already knew what Zaraki wanted to do. He couldn't allow that, though. Ichigo too had to be at full health to fight the Arrancar in case they came. They weren't fully informed on how complete Aizen's army was, but they knew that the situation couldn't be getting any better. That was why they were sending down a team to assess the situation and to see what they could do to slow Aizen's progress. Almost as soon as they got down, though, they felt several heavy spiritual pressures. They were Arrancar, and they were all Espada. That was going to be difficult. The group ran as quickly as they could to Urahara Shoten, dropped off their gigai, and prepared for battle, releasing their limiters before even getting to the scene, knowing that they would need the extra power.

Kenpachi ran down the street, feeling the spiritual pressure of the strongest Arrancar amongst the group. He could feel himself getting closer to the source of the spiritual pressure, but something felt off about them. It was like they were on a whole different level than the Arrancar that he had fought in the past, like Noitora might not even be a speck of dust compared to these ones. It made Zaraki excited to be fighting new and powerful enemies.

Finally, he came across a medium height male with shoulder length black hair and striking green eyes and a rapier at his side. The remains of his mask was in the shape of a monocle over his left eye and he had a very gentlemanly appearance.

"Greetings. I am Winston Millhouse III, and ironically, I am the Primera Espada…" he said proudly and in a slightly British accent, drawing his sword. He could tell immediately that Zaraki was powerful, but he didn't think that the ruffian Shinigami would be any threat to him, especially since he had a little girl with pink hair on his shoulder.

"Are you planning to carry your daughter around during the fight, or will you put her down and face me alone?" he asked in a British accent. Zaraki smirked and Yachiru jumped off of his shoulder and up a building to watch them fight.

"How's about we fight in the air. I wouldn't want to mess up any of these pretty buildings." Zaraki said with a maniacal grin. Winston nodded and jumped up in the air, bouncing off of reishi palates that he made himself to perch himself high above the earth. Zaraki quickly followed and faced Winston, drawing his own Zanpakutô and pulling his eyepatch off. He knew that he would need the extra reiatsu that night to fight such a high caliber opponent. In less than a second, the two beings clashed, striking steel against steel in a spray of sparks that flew off into the cool night air. The Espada quickly took over the fight, though, giving Zaraki a deep wound.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ICHIGO!!!" Everyone shouted as Ichigo walked into his family's clinic. At the clinic was Ichigo's family, Rukia, Gin, the other Vizard, Kisuke, Yoruichi, Tessai, Ururu, Jinta, Orihime Chad, and Uryû. Ichigo grinned widely. He had never told Rukia when his birthday was. She must have gotten the information from his family, who had obviously been planning a surprise party for him.

Ichigo grinned and waved at everyone, saying hello, but inwardly groaning. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate the thought, but he was tired, and he hadn't slept well in a few days. Not even Rukia knew this, but it was because he had a strange feeling about something bad coming up. He knew inwardly that if something bad really did come up, then he would need his rest in order to be able to properly fight it, but that didn't help him at all. Suddenly, though, he was drawn out of his thoughts by Rukia, who grabbed his wrist and pulled him into the clinic, where there was a cake with strawberries all around the edge of it. Ichigo groaned at the obvious pun, and smiled, cutting the cake and handing a piece to everyone. Even though he didn't really like cake, he ate a piece, himself, because he knew that his family had put a lot of thought into it. He was starting to accrue a pretty big family, now, actually. The Shinigami that he had become friends with, his human friends, his own family, the Vizard… They were all important to him.

After eating cake, Isshin ran in with some wrapped boxes and put them on the table, telling Ichigo to open his presents. Ichigo would have been just as happy to wait until everyone was gone to open his gifts, but now that they were all watching him, he figured he might as well. He untied the first box and opened it, taking out a wristband with the Soul Society skull on it. It had a letter from Rukia on it.

_Dear Ichigo,_

_This wristband is much like Zaraki's eyepatch. Be careful with it. You'll know when the time is right._

_Love Rukia-chan_

Ichigo smiled at Rukia and put the wristband on. Instantly, he felt a drain on his reiatsu. It really was like Kenpachi's eyepatch. It ate spirit energy and stored it inside and then when it was removed, it gave it all back at once. Next, he opened a bright pink one with lavender string on it. When he opened it, there was a small but loud explosion and an obnoxiously loud voice started talking.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Mr. Kurosaki, from all of us here at Urahara Shoten! Enjoy your present, and don't forget that my birthday is on December 31st!"

Ichigo scowled inwardly, and waved away the smoke and saw that there was a long, red hair ribbon inside. Ichigo glared at Urahara, who just started laughing hysterically.

"Ahahahaha!! Just kidding, just kidding. Here's your present, Mr. Kurosaki…" Kisuke said brightly, taking it out of his pocket. Ichigo was hesitant to open this one. But he did open it, and inside was a small note that said that the glove was to enhance his Kidô. Next, he opened Orihime's present. As he started to unwrap it, though, he felt a huge blast of spiritual pressure from Eastern Karakura Town. He dropped the box and got rid of his gigai, thanking all of them for coming and rushing out the door, flash stepping away.

Closely behind him, Orihime took a Gikongan and was ejected from her body as well and left. One by one after them, the rest of the people left, all knowing that they had a fight on their hands that night.

Ichigo finally made it to the resonating source of reiatsu and saw Kenpachi fighting up in the air with an Arrancar. The Arrancar barely looked injured, though he had taken a few cuts from Kenpachi's sword, he hadn't even released his Zanpakutô yet. That meant that he could still get a lot more powerful. Kenpachi had even taken off his eyepatch and was fighting full power. Unfortunately, though, in the next second, the Arrancar attacked and slashed Kenpachi across the chest, making a deep wound and sending him crashing to the ground. Yachiru jumped down to see if he was alright, and Ichigo jumped up to take Kenpachi's place. He took off his wristband and put it away temporarily, knowing that it would be important to have all of his power that night. It wasn't the night to begin training.

"Hi, I'm Kurosaki Ichigo. And your name is?" Ichigo asked with a smirk. The Arrancar laughed for a moment and then said,

"My, what a polite young man you are. So unlike the last one. He was such a ruffian. I suppose that I should tell you my name as well. I'm Winston Millhouse III, and ironically, I'm the Primera Espada."

"I see. You're a Vastorode, then?" Ichigo asked. Winston nodded and drew his Zanpakutô. Ichigo also drew his and went into Bankai before donning his Hollow mask. It wasn't a night that he could rely on just the Hollow powers that he had gained from fusing with his inner Hollow. He would need all the power he could get.

"Cero!!" Ichigo shouted, sending off a huge blast of red light at the Arrancar. It quickly engulfed Winston and eventually cleared. When the dust cleared away, though, it showed that Winston had only taken minimal damage from that attack. Ichigo would have to do better than that if he wanted to beat Winston. He was going to save _that_ Kidô for later, though, if he still needed it. He used Shunpô to close the distance between Winston and himself and did a Kuro Getsuga Tenshô at point blank range from the front and then did another one from behind, causing the two attacks to collide in midair with Winston in the center. When all of the smoke cleared, though, Winston was gone. Suddenly, SLASH!!

Ichigo roared in agony as his back was rent open by Winston's sword. The two attacks hadn't hit him at all, and he was fast. Much faster than Ichigo. Ichigo turned around and crossed swords for the first time with him. The Arrancar smirked.

"Well, I must admit, you are stronger than that ruffian down there. But your fighting has a veneer of sophistication that his is sadly lacking. It seems slightly refined…"

"How's this for refined, bastard!? Getsuga Tenshô!!" Ichigo shouted, doing the attack and hitting Winston dead on in the face. Seconds later, though, Ichigo was forced to turn around and block Winston's blade again. This time, he had hit the Arrancar, but hadn't done any significant damage to him. Ichigo focused for a moment, wondering if he could use a Gran Rey Cero in the human world without dealing too much damage. He probably could if he aimed the beam up rather than down or across. He used Shunpô to get behind Winston and grabbed his free arm and threw him up in the air, waiting for a second before biting his thumb, drawing blood and then preparing his attack. He felt the blue Cero charging in his hands and then he fired it off, a humongous blast that threatened anything within a mile of it. It engulfed Winston and didn't let up for several moments. When it did finally clear, Winston was breathing heavily and bleeding just as heavily from the sheer power of the attack. Ichigo took this chance to attack, but before he could get there, Winston released his Zanpakutô.

"Bleed, Aoichi!" he said coldly, and a huge explosion occurred around him, giving him what looked like a knight's armor with spikes all over it. Suddenly, a barrage of the spikes came out of the armor and impaled Ichigo, who cursed, as the spikes punctured his flesh, tearing him up all over. He had never been in a fight that was so high level before, but he was sure that this wouldn't be his last. He knew that even more powerful Arrancar were likely on their way to fight the forces of the Human world and Soul Society.

Suddenly, Ichigo was again impaled by Aoichi's spikes. He grunted as again and again he was shot at and hit by the spike missiles. He just needed to get off that one Kidô, but he wasn't sure if he was strong enough anymore to use it. It was the most powerful Hadô in existence and spelled absolute death for the target should they be hit. It also took a huge toll on anyone stupid enough to use it, though, and that was what Ichigo was afraid of. He was afraid that he would be too weak, it would fail, and he would die, or that it would be so weak that it wasn't effective and he would still die. He had to try, though. He used a Shunpô to get out of the way, continuing to dodge the increasingly large barrages of missiles and he started the invocation,

"C-Creatures of the night come forth. Shade thyself from the sun. Hold true to thy evil objectives and thrive in the chaos that hath been created for you! Hadô #100! Coiling Abyss!" Ichigo shouted, feeling the immediate drain of the rest of his reishi. He had none left. He watched silently as the Arrancar hit by the black coils that had sprung forth from the earth below and erased his existence. He could feel his world getting blurry and he slowly fell to the ground below. He knew that he was dying. When he hit the ground, he would be no more. He wasn't scared, though. He had lived a good life. He was proud of his accomplishments. He met Rukia and fell in love with her. They had been the best times of his entire life, and he refused to regret any of it. As he closed his eyes for the last time, he hit the ground in a huge blast of dirt and stone flying everywhere.

As that happened, though, Orihime ran up to Ichigo and saw the state that he was in. She had to save him. She had to revive him from the dead. She could do that. She had done it for Rukia, and she could do it for Ichigo.

"W-Watashi wa kyozetsu suru, Shunshunrikka!" she shouted, releasing her Zanpakutô and immediately setting to work on Ichigo. She focused all of her spiritual energy on healing Ichigo and bringing him back, and finally, she heard labored breathing coming from him, and she smiled. Revivals really took a lot out of her, but she was happy to do it for someone that she truly cared about, and Ichigo was alright, now.

Meanwhile, the rest of the Vizard and Kisuke, Yoruichi, and Isshin helped the other captains and lieutenants to defeat and destroy the rest of the Arrancar. Of the seven Arrancar that went to the human world, all of them were successfully destroyed, which put a huge hole in Aizen's army, since all of them had been Espada. Unfortunately, the six Shinigami that had gone to the Human world had also taken a great deal of injury that night and were forced to go back to Soul Society to recuperate and come up with a plan.

The Commander-General stood in front of all of the captains and lieutenants, including Zaraki, who had been healed by Orihime almost completely. The Arrancar had not actually killed him that night, but he had come dangerously close. In fact, all of the captains and lieutenants that had gone to the Human world had come dangerously close to dying. It was only for Orihime's training in both medicine and the use of her newfound Zanpakutô that all of them returned alive. The Commander-General had an important announcement. He had talked to Urahara Kisuke and Shihôin Yoruichi and Kisuke had agreed to make a new Hôgyoku to Hollowfy all of the captains and lieutenants in the Gotei Thirteen. Thus far, it had only been proven to work on that level of Shinigami, and they didn't want to risk losing any manpower by destroying them with the Hôgyoku's power. Even Kisuke and Yoruichi were Hollowfying themselves in order to become more powerful as well. They were getting the Vizard to help them all train. The Vizard had been reluctant at first, but after being requested by Kisuke himself, they agreed to train the captains and lieutenants in the use of their Hollow masks.

Back in the Human world, Kisuke was busy under his shop working on the Hôgyoku, knowing that it could mean the difference between victory and defeat. He wanted to defeat Aizen as much as Soul Society did, and the only way to do that was going to be to hollowfy. Ichigo was also training hard with the rest of the Vizard under Kisuke's shop. There, they could use as much space as they wanted, and not damage anything. Ichigo badly needed to bring himself up to his limit before he even stood a chance to defeat Aizen. Right now, Ichigo and the rest of the Vizard estimated that he was about three fourths as powerful as Aizen. He needed to be just as powerful as Aizen if not more to be able to beat the power hungry former captain

Just like the Shinigami and the Vizard were training, the humans were all training as well to bring their powers up as much as they could. Chad had managed to manifest his whole Hollow bodysuit instead of just manifesting the armor over his arms, and he was now about as powerful as Renji, which was pretty good, considering he only gained his powers a few years ago. Orihime also had become quite adept at using her powers to revive the dead, and could raise three or four people from the dead without tiring herself out too much. She had also excelled at healing Kidô. Unohana said that she was amazed at her progress, and that Orihime's talents exceeded her own in some areas. Uryû was training with his father, though he wasn't too happy about it, and his father had been teaching him Quincy techniques that he himself had created. The Vizard were using all of their time training with each other to increase the amount of time that they could hold their masks and fighting to just make themselves more powerful. Gin had taught them the secret meditation technique that Aizen had come up with for beating their inner Hollows down further.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter Seventeen

"Finally! I'm finished with the Hôgyoku!" Kisuke exclaimed brightly, holding up the small orb. It had taken a lot of work and even more time and energy, but it had been worth it.

"Now…" he said, "to test it on myself first…"

He absorbed the Hôgyoku into his fingers and touched his own forehead, feeling a surge of dark energy course through his veins. Finally, the ball of swirling evil left his hand and reformed on the table, but Kisuke fell to the ground, writhing in agony. He had never really felt this kind of pain before. He focused as Hachi and the rest of the Vizard walked up to him and used a Kidô to hold him down and put him to sleep while he fought his inner Hollow.

Kisuke fell into a black abyss and finally came back out in Benihime's world. He looked around and then saw his Hollow self standing opposite him with Benihime in his hand.

"Hey…" the Hollow said darkly. Kisuke looked at it, noticing that Benihime was nowhere in sight.

"Where's Benihime?" he asked coldly. The Hollow shrugged and snickered at his question, as if to imply that it was a stupid question.

"Cry, Benihime!" they both shouted at the same time, releasing their Zanpakutô. The Hollow Kisuke started to move in to attack, but Kisuke used his Zanpakutô to attack from a distance first.

"Sing, Benihime!" he shouted, releasing as big a blast of his Zanpakutô as he could at the Hollow. It hit the Hollow dead on, but appeared to do no damage. Kisuke thought for a moment. If his normal attacks wouldn't do any damage, he would need to go into Bankai. That was obvious.

"Bankai! Benihime Shukketsu!" he shouted, turning Benihime into a huge tank on his back with a large hose coming out of it that led to a cannon-like object that rested on his shoulder.

"Cry, Benihime!" Kisuke shouted, sending a blood red blast at the Hollow, hitting just to the side. What happened, though, was that it exploded sending a shockwave of red energy that engulfed the Hollow, defeating it.

"Well, well… You are stronger than I thought. You win. But don't forget, I'm still here. I won't just be your servant forever. One day, I will take your power for myself…"

Next, Kisuke's world crumbled around him and he came back to reality. Looking around, he noticed that the Vizard were all looking at him.

"T-ten minutes flat… That's the best time any of us has ever gotten," Shinji said. Kisuke looked at them and grinned as though he knew that was going to happen all along.

"Well, it's just because I'm so sexy and talented! OW!!" he said, getting kicked in the back of the head by Ichigo. He looked around and grinned widely, causing Ichigo to scowl. Ichigo just looked away, though and then walked off, not seeing anything he could really do about a pain in the ass. Yoruichi had already hollowfied, and most of the captains, including Zaraki had hollowfied, and defeated their inner Hollows.

Of the captains; Zaraki took the longest at 75 minutes and 59 seconds, which was the longest amount of time that any Vizard had ever taken to defeat their inner Hollow. The Vizard had all admitted that they were amazed at how much time he was able to take. Admittedly, Zaraki did drag out the battle as much as he could, thinking of it as a chance to fight a new kind of opponent. Supposedly, though, he thoroughly thrashed his Hollow.

The captain that took the shortest amount of time was the Commander-General. He also was able to hold his mask for the longest, at 48 hours, 23 minutes, and 12 seconds. Zaraki, on the other hand, could only hold the Hollow mask on for two minutes at first, and so he had immediately started training with the other captains, who all had to use their Hollow masks just to keep up with him. Despite the small amount of time that he could hold the mask at first, though, he was making steady progress, and was soon up to five minutes.

Fortunately for Soul Society, Aizen's forces had taken a major hit to their manpower in the raid on the Human World that they were all sure that Aizen wasn't expecting. However, they also knew that he would soon be up to full power again, and that he wouldn't stay down for long. Soon, he would have even more powerful minions at his beck and call, and they would quickly attack the Human world and Soul Society. They were fortunate the first time after they beat Aizen in the winter war. They dealt enough damage to his forces to force him to retreat and figure out how to make his team more powerful in the shortest amount of time. He obviously decided that the quickest way to do that was to bring new people to his side, which he found in Ichigo and Rukia. Unfortunately, they convinced Gin and Tôsen to betray Aizen and now Soul Society had Gin back on their side, and Aizen had neither Gin nor Tôsen, which put another hole in his plans. However, recently, he had been building up a large force of Vastorode, which proved that there were more of them in Hueco Mundo than Soul Society or even Aizen previously believed. Now that they had done more research on Hueco Mundo, they had learned that there were at least fifty known Vastorode in Hueco Mundo. And then that meant that there were even more that Soul Society had not accounted for, which was a problem. If Aizen managed to find all of the Vastorode and turn them into Arrancar, Soul Society would definitely be doomed.

When Kurotsuchi told the rest of the captains this information, they had decided to change their original plans to Hollowfying all seated officers. That meant that there would be 260 Vizard just among the Thirteen Court Guards. Though it was taking a risk, the Council of Forty-Six had decided that it was a risk that they were willing to take in order to assure the continued safety of the human world and of Soul Society. The Shinigami had held an impromptu Captaincy Exam to find three new captains for Soul Society, and had immediately put them into place without the usual ceremony or swearing in. Instead of that, they Hollowfied the captains right after they were selected and began training them.

Meanwhile, back in the Human world, Orihime, Chad, and Uryû had all dropped out of high school in order to train full time. They figured that if they ever got the chance, that they would go back to school and finish their education, but at the moment, they knew what their jobs were. Chad had become at least as powerful as an above average captain and Orihime had become about as powerful as a lieutenant in her Kidô, though she was still lacking severely in the other three Shinigami arts. Despite that, she had discovered her Bankai, which was basically just the actual manifestation of her six Shunshunrikka and a huge boost in power to be able to revive and heal more people. She had also improved in making shields, and her other Kidô was improving as well.

Back in Hueco Mundo, Aizen secretly cursed. He hadn't expected at all for Soul Society to be able to Hollowfy their officers. Things weren't going according to plan, and frankly, he was livid with rage, though he was very good at hiding it. He had managed to find three more Vastorode to turn into Arrancar, but his army still wasn't complete, and he feared that he was running out of time in which he could still take over Soul Society and place himself atop the heavens as he had originally wanted to do. Suddenly, though, he felt a large group of massive spiritual pressures coming into the castle. He could tell immediately what they were. They were Vastorode, and he could only assume that they had come to become Arrancar. After all, why else would they come? He watched via scrying as they filed through the castle.

He silently did a headcount. There were ten of them, and apparently, they were being escorted by a member of his Espada. He grinned wickedly. This was what he had been waiting for. He had heard of a small band of Vastorode that roamed Hueco Mundo, devouring as many Hollows along the way as they could. Even Aizen had to admit, though, he never expected them to be as powerful as they were. Their spiritual pressure even impressed him, and he was hard to impress, given his own prodigious ability.

The group suddenly walked into the throne room and looked up at Aizen, who smiled welcomingly at them.

"Welcome to Las Noches." He said quietly, stepping down from his throne for a moment. "May I ask why you have come here?" he asked, knowing perfectly well why, but wanting to see what their answer would be. One of the group stepped forward and bowed.

"We came to serve you and become Arrancar. We heard of your plans to overthrow Soul Society and we want to join you." He said in a masculine voice. Aizen nodded and grabbed the Hôgyoku, absorbing it into his hand slowly and walking up to the ten Hollows, touching it to each of their foreheads individually, causing their masks to shatter. He looked around at the group. They were certainly diverse, but the one that almost made him laugh was an Arrancar that looked like an eight year old girl with pink hair, pink eyes and a scythe that was larger than she was, and she wore a black neko ears headband on her head. Though she looked friendly, she was the leader of the group, and easily the most powerful. She remembered her lifetime, which seemed ages ago. Actually, that's because it was. In life, she was a normal human girl. She always had great spiritual energy, and was able to see Shinigami. After she was killed, though, by a Hollow, and turned into one herself, she began to hate the Shinigami for not saving her, and forevermore, she bore a huge grudge against the Shinigami that failed her in life, so in death, she promised to kill as many Shinigami as she could and devour their essence. She had truly become a connoisseur of Shinigami. She preferred male Shinigami, since she said that they were spicier than female, and that she preferred adult Shinigami to children, because they had tougher hide and muscle.

"And, what would your name be, young lady?" Aizen asked politely. The new Arrancar smiled sweetly and giggled. "I'm Artemis…" she said with another giggle. Aizen smiled and handed her some clothes to put on, which she donned immediately. They consisted of a gothic Lolita dress and white stockings along with white shoes with a strap and buckle on them. She grinned brightly and bowed, skipping happily out of the throne room. The remaining Espada all looked grimly at Aizen, who smiled back at them and shrugged.

"Shouldn't you have told the brat that she's allowed to pick lesser Arrancar to be her Fracción?" Ililie asked harshly. She already didn't like Artemis. She could tell that they weren't going to get along well. She was too peppy and cutesy.

The other new Arrancar merely took their clothes and walked out to their rooms, each escorted by a different Arrancar. Artemis found an empty room on her own and immediately jumped up and cut a big heart shaped scratch in the door so that she would know that it was hers. She walked in and frowned. The room was too sparsely decorated. She would have to go to the human world and find stuff that she could bring back and make her room more colorful with.

Later that evening, Artemis skipped brightly into Aizen's throne room, failing to knock and failing to bow when she got to the foot of the stairs that went up to his chair. She looked up at him with bright, pleading pink eyes and said, "Lord Aizen! Could I pretty please go to the human world!? My room is really _boring_ and I wanted to get some stuff to make it more fun!" she said, a little too loudly. The other Espada looked down at her irately, as though she were pissing them off, although none of the other new Espada were there, since Aizen hadn't measured each of their abilities and decided who was going to be in the Espada and who wasn't. Aizen smiled gently at Artemis's request and nodded, telling her to take another Arrancar or two with her and get what she wanted from the human world. Since he didn't tell her to take any money, she assumed that it was alright to just take it. Back when she was still a human, theft wasn't uncommon, and indeed, it was sometimes necessary to survive. Though she was personally killed by a Hollow, her mother had been killed when she was robbed in the marketplace, and her father was murdered after that by the same men, with whom he fought to save his wife. Her older brother died of an infection when he cut himself on a rusted nail and her sister died of starvation. She was about seven when her sister died, and she lived on for a year, picking pockets and stealing food to survive before the Hollow came and devoured her, turning her into a Hollow as well. In a way, she found it liberating to be a ghost. She didn't need to steal to live. All she had to do was step on the little tiny human maggots that seemed so numerous.

She grabbed a gigai and looked up at Ililie, who glared down at her as if just daring her to try and ask her to go. Artemis apparently didn't get it, though, and spoke.

"Hey, Big Sister! Would you pleeeeeease come to the Human world with me!?" she asked pleadingly, looking up at Ililie with the cutest puppy dog face she could muster. Ililie cursed and stood, jumping down to the floor and following her out of the room after grabbing another Gigai from the closet.

The two Arrancar walked into the store and looked around for what they wanted. They were just going to steal all of it, so they didn't need to worry about price. The two split up and started to pick stuff up that Artemis had put on her list of stuff that she wanted. She wanted CDs, and video games, some systems and other electronic stuff like that. She had asked for a computer and computer games. Of course, they were going to have to ask Szayel to set all of the stuff up. She would also need a television for the video games. So, they walked through the store and gathered everything that they needed into a cart and then started walking out. It wasn't until they were at the door, though, that they had any trouble.

"Excuse me. May I please see your receipt?" the clerk asked politely to the two girls that had two carts loaded to the brim with electronics. Ililie smiled in false politeness and nodded.

"Sure. Just let me get it out of my pocket…" she said, reaching in and instead of pulling out a receipt, she pulled out a huge handgun with what looked like the bottom jaw of a Hollow on the side of it. She smiled cruelly and pulled the trigger, but instead of shooting a bullet, it shot a powerful Bala blast that literally blew the woman's head off. All of the customers suddenly started screaming as Ililie and Artemis ran out of the store, pushing the carts into the parking lot.

They ran down the ramp from the mall to get out to the street, but were cut off by police officers, whose sirens were wailing and flashing blue and red. Ililie cursed and Artemis drew her scythe to prepare for a fight. The police all jumped out of their cars and aimed their guns at Ililie and Artemis. None of them could understand why such a little girl had such a huge scythe. In fact, none of them knew that scythes even really existed anymore. Ililie cursed and set the handgun to Cero mode. She then aimed at one of the police cars and fired, engulfing the entire car in red light before it exploded in a fiery inferno, spreading to the other cars and blowing them up as well.

When the smoke cleared, they saw that almost all of the police officers were dead and burned to a crisp. More were on their way, though. They could hear them in the distance, so they ran as quickly as they could, packing both of the carts into a bag that had an extradimensional space inside to hold an infinite number of items without it weighing anything at all. Artemis rushed ahead, but was cut off by another officer. She scowled and looked at Ililie, who was also glaring at the officers.

"Damn! These fucking Human pigs sure are fast! And all this just because we robbed a store!" Ililie snarled. Artemis just grinned cutely and shook her head.

"I'll take care of it, Big Sister!" she said with a giggle, sucking in a huge blast of air and using her Gonzui on all of the people in the area.

"Yucky! Human souls are so disgusting!" Artemis complained, looking around at all of the bodies lying around on the street. Ililie just shrugged, though, and called up to the Menos Grande, who used Negación to transport them back to Hueco Mundo.

"Hey, Szayel! That Bala gun works really well. It really did a number on the humans…" Ililie said coldly, handing him back the gun. Szayel bowed politely.

"It was my pleasure. I was looking for someone to test it, anyhow. Did you two find what you needed in the human world?" he asked with a smile that hid his true contempt for the woman that now sat in his former seat among the Espada. Ililie nodded.

"Hey, Apollo-kun!" Artemis asked playfully. Szayel didn't actually hate Artemis. He found her antics amusing sometimes, even.

"Yes, Lady Artemis?" He spoke so formally to her because she had chosen him to be in her Fraccíon, along with some other Arrancar that she considered "fun", like Luppi, Cirucci, and one named Haru. She giggled at his formality.

"Call me Artie!" she said brightly. Szayel nodded.

"Apollo-kun! I need you to hook up my stuff now!" she said forwardly, bouncing up and down with excitement. He nodded. He had always wanted to tinker with modern human technology, so he followed her to her room and looked at the instruction manuals, leafing through each of them quickly to learn how to work them and then he immediately set to work opening them and setting them up. The television was easy enough. All he had to do was plug it in and connect a cable to a wall. The games were more difficult, though. He pulled out a huge outlet and plugged it into the back wall, plugging all of the game systems into it at once so that at any given time, she could play any of the game systems. He then plugged in the computer and set up her internet for her. He had heard about human internet. It was a whole network of computers that allowed humans to communicate all over the world, regardless of distance from each other. He was sometimes amazed at how clever humans could be in spite of themselves.

When he was all done, he grinned and stood up, stretching after having been in a kneeling position for so long. He walked out, happy as could be, having looked at human technology. He had all sorts of new ideas, now for things that he could make, but he had to get to his lab first.


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter Eighteen

The war was drawing close. Aizen's army was once again complete, and he had his Espada numbered and ready to go, with Artemis being the Primera. Ichigo and the Vizard and Soul Society were ready for them, though. All seated officers had trained for over a year with their masks, and were ready to fight like they never had before in their lives.

In the year that they had to train, Ichigo had made incredible progress both with his Hollow abilities and his Shinigami abilities. He could now cast Kidô that were at least twice as powerful as Aizen's and his Zanjutsu was amazing. It was a little bit scary, even, how he had done what he did in such a short time, but now he could fire off several Gran Rey Ceros without draining his reiatsu significantly, and his Getsuga Tenshô was something fearsome to behold.

Rukia had also made considerable progress. She was fighting at the level of maybe the fifth Espada and she was still getting more powerful by the day. Everyone knew that the relatively quiet times that they were having though weren't going to last for very long. Aizen was in control of all of the Hollows, and he was keeping them quiet for the time being so that he could prepare his army, but he wasn't going to sit still for long. He had a plan, and he was going to execute that plan eventually. In fact, Soul Society predicted that within the next six months, they would be at war. Whether it was in Soul Society, or in the human world, they didn't know, but they did know that wherever it was, casualties would be tremendous, and damage would be catastrophic in scale.

Ichigo sighed. He had bought a ring for Rukia a while back, but he was scared to ask her. He knew that she loved him, but he was afraid that she would say that she didn't want to get married. What would that do to their relationship, then? Would they drift apart? Would they just stop talking or something? Ichigo didn't think he could handle that. He had been away from his family for a long time, ever since the last time that the Arrancar attacked the Human world, and he was training for a war. All of that put a great deal of stress on him, and even just the knowledge that Rukia still loved him was enough to bring him through it. They never had time together anymore, and he rarely even saw her, except in passing. He was afraid that their relationship was dying.

Ichigo steeled his nerves, though, and went back to training. He had been wearing the wristband for a whole year, and over that time, he had indeed felt his reiatsu increasing dramatically. Unfortunately, Ichigo no longer had time to think about anything. He could now feel a massive reiatsu entering the Human world. It was Aizen and his army. They were making their attack on the Human world. Defeat was not an option. Death was not an option. Ichigo knew that he had to win, or else life on Earth and in Soul Society was over. Aizen would take the 100,000 souls that he needed to make the Ôken, and he would kill the Kami-sama, and stand atop the heavens as he had wanted to for so long. He would take over Soul Society and rule with an iron fist, remolding it according to his whims.

Ichigo could also feel, though, the reiatsus of all of the Shinigami that had been training so intensely to prepare for the war. He could feel the familiarity of their Hollow's reiatsu as well, and he felt slightly comforted by this. He felt as a Kidô was cast, and like the last time, the area of the battlefield was sent away to Soul Society so that no civilians would be injured.

Ichigo grabbed his sword and ran out of the warehouse with the rest of the Vizard closely behind. He disappeared from sight, though, with a Shunpô, moving ahead to get there faster. He knew that he couldn't waste any time. What the others did was their issue, but he was going to get there as quickly as possible.

When he did get there, the scale of the two armies floored him. Aizen had all of the Arrancar that he had ever made there, and Soul Society had every seated officer there. It was like watching two superpowers do battle on a too small piece of land. He could hear the Commander-General shouting orders and the lieutenants and captains carrying them out. Ichigo watched as all of the Shinigami donned their Hollow masks and ran in to attack the Arrancar. Instantly, the two groups spread out in hundreds of miniature battles. Ichigo searched for the strongest of the Arrancar and found that it was a little girl with pink hair and pink eyes.

"Hiya! Are you a Shinigami!? I know that we aren't supposed to be friends, but perhaps we could just play Onigokko (Chase the devil *similar to playing tag*) until the fight is over!?"

"Geez! I'm not sure I even _can_ fight you! You're a little girl! What are you even doing out here!?"

"Little girl!? I'll have you know that I'm over seven hundred years old. In fact, I celebrated my 710th birthday just two days ago!" she said indignantly, snorting at him with an arrogant smirk. Ichigo rolled his eyes.

"Regardless, I don't think I can fight you." Ichigo said irately. Artemis shrugged and did a Sonido, crossing swords with him in less than a split second. She giggled.

"Guess I'll have to start the show, then! I wouldn't wanna become bored!" she said with a laugh, spinning and kicking at Ichigo, which Ichigo blocked with his forearm, but not without feeling a sudden rush of agony as he was thrown back. He landed on his feet and used Shunpô to attack while going into Bankai. He knew that he couldn't beat such a powerful Arrancar without using Bankai. That would be impossible. He was extremely powerful, but so were the Espada, and he was fighting the Primera Espada… at least he thought that he was.

"May I ask you something?" Ichigo asked, crossing swords with Artemis again.

"Yeah?" she said with a smile. Oddly enough, her smile almost made her look like Yachiru, although she looked a little older, actually, than Yachiru was.

"What number are you?"

"Number one, of course! You couldn't tell that!? I'm surprised, Shinigami!"

"Well, I guess I'll have to be using this then, won't I? I can't be taking it easy on you just because you look like a child."

Ichigo drew his hand across his face, donning his Hollow mask, giving him a huge spike in power. This was it. This was war, and he had to use every trick that he could throw at her to beat her. She was at least five times as powerful as the old Primera Espada, and she was much faster as well. Ichigo glared at her and slowly put his hand right up to her solar plexus.

"This is gonna hurt, sweetie… a lot." He said with a smirk, firing off a Gran Rey Cero right off the bat. Artemis was thrown back violently and crashed into an abandoned building, turning the entire structure to dust just from the impact alone. She shook her head to free herself of the ringing in her ears and used Sonido to attack Ichigo.

"Hey! That was pretty good, Shinigami! Where did you get Hollow powers from!?" she asked brightly and with a giggle. This girl was really annoying him.

"Not important, little girl. I suppose this is all that I need to say to you. Inquisition. Clouds of blood. 40 years of darkness in the starry night sky. Form thy sword and mold thy shield and take up arms against thine enemy! Hadô 90! Kuro Hitsugi!" Ichigo shouted, jumping back and watching as a huge black box, bigger than anything he had manifested before enveloped the girl and dense spikes of pure dark reiatsu skewered her on them. Ichigo heard a cry from inside and guessed that the spell had done its work. When the box disappeared, though, she shook herself free of the blood and looked down at her dress, which was torn up and stained solid crimson now with blood. A fierce and furious glare appeared in her eyes.

"You damn Shinigami!!" she shrieked, drawing her scythe again and releasing it.

"Cut, Kirikuchikage!" she snarled, and her entire body was covered in blades that were spinning in excess of 1,000,000 RPM. Ichigo knew that one of those could cut through him like a hot knife through butter. He couldn't afford to be reckless. He would have to use more distance attacks and Kidô.

Suddenly, though, Artemis disappeared and reappeared behind Ichigo. He turned around just in time to fire off a Byakurai that set a decent distance between the two of them. He then immediately did a Kuro Getsuga Tenshô, watching as the black blade of energy ran straight through Artemis. She easily waved it off with her left arm, though, and attacked again. He didn't want to have to use that Kidô again. He was sure that he could do it without exhausting himself this time, but he wasn't sure that it was safe. So, he used Shunpô to move in and did a Gran Rey Cero from point blank range, hitting her dead in the face and sending her flying again. He immediately did another Shunpô and used a Shakkahô to send her flying to the ground. As she neared the ground, he used another Kidô to bind her in place.

"Bakudô 100! Bankin! First song!" Ichigo shouted, as Artemis was sealed in place. Artemis immediately broke the bonds, though, and spun around and kicked Ichigo in the back, leaving a deep gash across his back. Ichigo howled in pain just as Artemis did a Cero beam and hit him in the back, sending him flying into the ground. He hit the ground hard, but shortly after, peeled himself off of the pavement and jumped back into the air. There was no choice, apparently. Ichigo prepared himself to cast the final spell. "Creatures of the night come forth. Shade thyself from the sun. Hold true to thy evil objectives and thrive in the chaos that hath been created for you. Hadô 100! Coiling Abyss!"

"NOOOOOOO!!!!!!" Artemis shrieked as huge coils of black energy came up and disintegrated her and about ten other Arrancar that were standing above her. Ichigo immediately healed his back and went back into battle to help the others. Slowly, the tide of the battle turned in the Shinigami's favor. Ichigo attacked and destroyed Arrancar after Arrancar until finally, he made it to Aizen, who merely grinned at him and drew his sword. Ichigo smirked and tore off a length of his sleeve and covered his eyes. He had studied Aizen's Zanpakutô extensively, and learned that only those that could see could be affected by his Zanpakutô's ability. Aizen smiled and chuckled, dropping his Zanpakutô to the ground.

"Bankai…" he said lazily. "Kyoka Suigetsu Obo…"

With that, a huge blast of reiatsu hit Ichigo. It was unlike anything he had ever felt before. It was so cold and evil. It almost made Ichigo feel sick from its sheer malevolence. It was a pure mixture of Aizen's Hollow and Shinigami powers, and it was more powerful than Ichigo had expected. Still, though, Ichigo charged at Aizen, using Shunpô to move behind him and slashed at him, cutting him finally. Aizen just smiled and stabbed Ichigo in the back, who grimaced in agony. Ichigo knew that he couldn't give up, though. Ichigo used Shunpô again to circle around Aizen and use a Gran Rey Cero to hit him to the side and then immediately do a Hadô 100 to destroy him. The problem? The Kidô didn't work on Aizen. Somehow, he had gained an immunity to it. Ichigo cursed. He had to think quickly, or his life was forfeit. He slashed at Aizen and once his blade was in his side, he did the most powerful Kuro Getsuga Tenshô that he could do, sending Aizen flying. Aizen gasped in pain as he stood up. He had never faced such an equal opponent. No. Not equal. Ichigo was now a bit stronger than Aizen. But Aizen knew how to change the tide of a battle in his favor.

"You know, Kurosaki-kun, you and I, we aren't really that different. What you don't understand is that there's no such thing as good and evil. What Soul Society was prepared to do to Kuchiki… that was neither good, nor just, and yet… they did it because they believed it to be following the law. Does that mean that a law can be evil? No. That isn't what it means. It merely means that they didn't question authority. And why didn't they question authority? Because of _power_. One could argue that there is only power in this world, in any world. There are those with power, and those without power, and those without power will inevitably fall to those with power. The reason for this is because we fear that which is greater than ourselves. Humans fear God because they believe that God will punish them if they commit a sin. Shinigami fear the Council of 46, because with one word, they can sentence anyone who doesn't obey them to death. Do you see what I'm saying? You're not on the side of good, or the side of justice. You've merely picked one group of people who have a limited amount of power and you've clung to them. It's our nature to want to cling to likeminded individuals. But I'm rambling a little bit. My point is that the mere fact that you're a Shinigami doesn't make you good, and the mere fact that one is a Hollow doesn't make them evil, because there is no such thing as good and evil. Only power. I can help you obtain the power that you seek. Though you are stronger than me, there are still those out there that would be stronger yet than you, and would mean you harm. I can make you still more powerful yet so that you can crush your enemies beneath your feet and make them your slaves! Nobody will be able to stand up to you. Join me, and we can achieve whatever we want together." Aizen said, all the while grinning, sure that he was reaching Ichigo. Ichigo just snorted, though, and said, "You just wasted ten minutes of my time. Let's just get this over with. Sinners run rampant. Darkness holds them just by their throats. Honor the vow to purge not with water but with fire for a new start. Hadô 95! Dawn of Megiddo!" Ichigo shouted, watching as violet flame rained down on Aizen, scorching him badly. Ichigo immediately dodged through the rain and approached Aizen, doing a Kuro Getsuga Tenshô from the front and the back all at once and destroying Aizen once and for all. Aizen screamed in the throes of death as his form disintegrated into nothingness. All of the Shinigami and the Arrancar above looked down at this, and saw Ichigo still standing over Aizen's sword. There weren't many Arrancar left, but the few that were were then quickly overpowered by the Shinigami, who had gained the upper hand because of how shocked the Arrancar were that their leader was dead.

When all of the Arrancar were destroyed, the Shinigami cheered and returned the Human world to the way it was before. Aizen was dead. The Arrancar were destroyed and the world was once again safe from evil. Almost immediately, Ichigo was crowded by all of the Shinigami who were amazed at the epic battle that had just taken place between Ichigo and Aizen. Ichigo was able to get away, though, by jumping up and using a Shunpô to escape.

When Ichigo was finally alone, he sat down and for the first time in ages, he felt like the world wasn't on his shoulders. It was such a liberating feeling. He was exhausted, though. He had expended almost all of his spiritual energy in the battle against Artemis and then to battle with Aizen, he went far over his limit. Just as he was about to collapse, though, Rukia grabbed him, hugging him tightly and kissing him on the lips.

"GOD! I was so nervous when you started fighting Aizen!! I thought for sure that you were… It doesn't even matter! I can't believe you beat him! When did you learn how to do Coiling Abyss!? That's one of the most difficult Kidô to pull off. You have to have incredible reiatsu and control, and…"

What she was going to say was lost in a kiss from Ichigo. He pulled out of his pocket the ring that he had meant to give Rukia for so long, but never got the chance. Finally, it was his time.

"Rukia-chan… I love you so much… more than anyone in the world. I can't imagine my life without you anymore… W-will you marry me?"

Ichigo opened the box, almost causing Rukia to fall over in shock. She had never expected Ichigo to be so up front about it. She held out her finger, allowing Ichigo to slide the ring on and nodded numbly.

"Y-yes… I… will…" she said, hardly able to think. Fortunately, she didn't have to think, because Ichigo kissed her again, and held her in a passionate embrace until they were interrupted by Gin and Mashiro, who had also gone to the same place to be alone. It was ironic that they both went there to be alone and then ran into each other. Rukia looked down and saw that Mashiro also had a ring on her finger. She looked up at Gin in amazement. Gin just shrugged and smiled awkwardly at Rukia, looking over at Mashiro and kissing her again. He had finally atoned for all the terrible things he had done. Being able to forgive himself, to not hate himself for what he was, for what he did… He hadn't felt like that in a long time, and he felt incredible. It was such an amazing feeling that he suddenly started sobbing.

"Gin-kun! What's wrong!? Aren't you happy?" Mashiro asked.

"I-I am, Mashiro-chan. I just, don't know how to feel anymore. I've lived with my guilt for so long that it's st-strange not to feel it anymore…"

"Oh, stop being such a baby!" she said, hitting him lightly on the forehead. Gin smiled and walked off with her, hand in hand.

A year later, both Gin and Ichigo were married, and for their honeymoon, Gin and Mashiro went to Jamaica, and Ichigo and Rukia went to Hawaii to spend some time in the sun. They didn't even bring anything that would allow them out of their gigai. They were on vacation, and nothing was going to disturb them. There were some Shinigami stationed there in case there were Hollow attacks. They could leave the Hollows to them.

**The End**

This is my second fanfic that I've posted. Please read and review. I'd appreciate any criticism as long as it is constructive, and not a thinly veiled excuse for sending flames about how you don't like the couples in the story.


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